652 LIFE OF DA VID LI VINGSTONE, LL.D. 



ance. In consequence of some unheard-of cruelty he had committed on 

 women, an elder sister, whose rank was nearly equal to his own, had formed 

 a conspiracy, and had driven him out of the country. He only just managed 

 to escape with his life, accompanied by a few followers, who still remained 

 faithful to him; and he was skulking along through the jungle, afraid to 

 enter any village. 



After Ussambi, the party came into Ulunda. The huts of the people of 

 Ulunda are of exceedingly small dimensions, and are as a rule scattered 

 about the country in clusters of three or four, situated in the middle of small 

 clearings, each of which just suffices to support the one family who inhabit 

 it. Whilst passing through this country, they crossed many important afflu- 

 ents of the Lualaba or Congo ; and at one place the source of the Zambesi 

 was only ten or twelve miles to the south of them. 



Leaving Ulunda, they first passed through a country which is consi- 

 dered at present as neutral ground, but which is rapidly being colonised by 

 the people of Lovale. Lovale is a country of considerable extent; the eastern 

 portions are very similar to Ulunda, but, as they proceeded westward, they 

 came upon large plains, which, in the rainy season, are nearly covered with 

 water, and are then well-nigh impassable. From these inundations the inha- 

 bitants derive the greater portion of their wealth. When the waters are out, 

 innumerable fishes, principally siluri (or mud fish), swarm forth from the 

 rivers, and spread themselves all over the country. The inhabitants take 

 advantage of the slight inequalities of level to form small dams, by which, 

 when the floods subside, the fishes are confined, and are then easily cap- 

 tured by the natives, who dry them, and barter them with passing caravans, 

 and with their neighbours. So eager are the tribes on either side for these 

 fish, that they refuse all other articles of barter from caravans who have 

 passed through these piscatorial districts. In order to gratify this peculiar 

 taste of the people they were to meet on their road, Cameron and his com- 

 panions were obliged to lay in a large stock of this half-rotten fish ; and the 

 effluvia arising from it made their camp nearly pestilential. 



The place where they halted to buy in their fish cargo was very near 

 the point at which Dr. Livingstone's original route from Sekeletu's to Loanda 

 crossed Cameron's; and the chief Livingstone met there was the same that 

 Cameron saw. He remembered Livingstone well, and remembered the fact 

 of his riding an ox. In Lovale they had a good many annoying, though 

 not serious, troubles with the natives. These people had innumerable fet- 

 ishes, and every time any fetish was offended a fine was levied, and as a 

 stranger had no means of finding out what was fetish and what was not, these 

 fines were very numerous and vexatious. Certain trees might not be cut down 

 to build a camp ; against others no one might rest a gun ; some paths might 

 not be traversed by a stranger ; and so on ad infinitum. As nearly every man 



