636 LIFE OF DA VI D LI VING STONE, LL.D. 



When they emerged from the forest at the foot of the mountains, they 

 came upon a cultivated country, studded over with many villages. The huts 

 in these villages were arranged in long broad streets, the walls and ends of 

 bright red clay, with sloping roofs thatched with yellow grass. The scene 

 was altogether unlike anything Cameron had yet seen in Africa. The people 

 also presented a change as striking as that of the houses. The women dressed 

 their hair into the shape of an old-fashioned bonnet in front, with long ringlets, 

 daubed with mud and grease, hanging down their backs. The edge of the 

 bonnet-like part in front was trimmed with beads, cowries, or seeds of the 

 wild banana. Round their waists they wore a string of the same materials, 

 which served to support two small aprons, constituting all their clothing, and 

 which, when going to work in the field, or fishing, they replaced by small 

 bunches of leaves. The men, in their way, were equally peculiar, plastering 

 their hair thickly with mud, and forming it into cones, lumps, and flat plaits, 

 into which they inserted cowries and bits of copper as ornaments. Between 

 the different patches the scalp was shaved perfectly bare. Some wore a cone 

 on the top of their heads, and the side and back hair formed into long flat 

 flakes with mud, with round holes in them, to which iron and copper rings 

 were hung. The remainder of their dress consisted of leather aprons about 

 six or eight inches wide, reaching to their knees. 



After travelling for some time, they encamped at the village of Moene 

 Bugga, son of Moene Kussu. Livingstone made this village his head-quar- 

 ters for some months; and many of the people inquired after the " old white 

 man," and seemed very sorry to hear of his death. The chiefs wore large 

 kilts of fringed grass cloth, and the peculiar Manyema knife or sword slung 

 over his shoulder by a belt of otter skin. They were attended by people 

 carrying rattles, who proclaimed their names and tilles ; two, Moene Grohe 

 and Moene Boote, had dwarfs for their rattlers, and Moene Boote had also a 

 man playing on an instrument made of different sized gourds fastened in a 

 frame, and over them were keys of hard wood, which, when struck, gave»a 

 clear metallic sound, varying in pitch according to the size of the gourd under 

 each key. This instrument is called the " marimba," and is known close to 

 the west coast, from whence it reaches to Manyema. The name is the same 

 everywhere. 



From Moena Bugga's village they passed through another forest of enor- 

 mous trees, coming at last to the Luama. Cameron found this river a fine 

 stream, two hundred yards wide, and varying from twelve to fourteen feet in 

 depth, with a moderate current. Its banks are mostly covered with fine tim- 

 ber, and its winding course was often visible from some of the small hills over 

 which the path of the travellers led, forming an agreeable feature in the land- 

 scape. After crossing the Luama, they came to a flat country, intersected by 

 many streams and water-courses, which had grooved out for themselves deep 



