358 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
perhaps blood does not call for so high a premium in a 
savage country as it does in our own land. 
The gateway of the barrier seemed to be the only 
access to the town. It was composed of trunks of 
trees laid in a horizontal position, one above the other, 
and the whole “shored up” from the back by strong 
poles. 
Karemba soon succeeded in persuading the inhabitants 
that we were on a friendly mission, and had come to 
consult the “old man.” Satisfied with this assurance, 
they, after a good deal of work, pulled away a sufficient 
number of the logs to leave a small opening, through 
which we crawled with a little difficulty. 
Our appearance caused not a little curiosity among 
the crowd of Mashona, great and small, who witnessed 
our entrance. Immediately on our left, and half hidden 
under the shadow of a huge rock—against which were 
laid whole stacks of assegais, battle-axes, and clubs—sat 
the chief Chibero. His position was close to a large 
fire, where a number of his vassals, exceedingly 
wretched, half-fed looking creatures, also crowded in 
their efforts to absorb in their miserable bodies some 
share of the scanty heat, for the morning air was bitterly 
cold. 
I felt, and I am sure I looked, like a mummy. We 
seated ourselves, with awful solemnity, upon the ground, 
looking and acting all the while as though our mission 
was of a most funereal character. It should be re¬ 
membered that in the company of the savage the longer 
you remain mute, the greater weight will be carried by 
your words, whenever you deem it fitting to divulge the 
ruminations of your mind. Does not this bear in some 
degree upon certain features or frailties in civilised life ? 
Many a man, but few women (for obvious reasons), have 
high reputations for wit as well as wisdom built upon 
the negative but commanding virtue of silence. The 
virtue seems to be exceptionally useful—golden not 
silvern—in the world of business. In my position at 
that time any appearance of anxious solicitation would 
have been disastrous ; just as it invariably is, in dealings 
