CHAr. XXIII. 
CHEAPNESS OF FOOD. 
455 
feel glad when the path comes into the shade. The want of life 
in the scenery made me long to tread again the banks of the 
Zambesi, and see the graceful antelopes feeding beside the dark 
buffaloes and sleek elands. Here liippopotami are Imown to 
exist only by their footprints on the banks. Not one is ever seen 
to blow or put his head up at all; they have learned to breathe 
in silence, and keep out of sight. We never heard one uttering 
the snorting sound so common on the Zambesi. 
We crossed two small streams, the Kanesi and Fombeji, before 
reaching Cabango, a village situated on the banks of the Chi- 
hombo. The country was becoming more densely peopled as we 
proceeded, but it bears no population compared to what it might 
easily sustain. Provisions were to be had in great abundance ; a 
fowl and basket of meal weighing 20 lbs. were sold for a yard and 
a half of very uiferior cotton-cloth, worth not more than three 
pence. An idea of the cheapness of food may be formed from 
the fact, that Captain Neves purchased 380 lbs. of tobacco from 
the Bangalas, for about two pounds sterhng. This, when carried 
into central Londa, might purchase seven thousand five hundred 
fowls, or feed with meal and fowls seven thousand persons for one 
day, givuig each a fowl and 5 lbs. of meal. When food is pur¬ 
chased here with either salt or coarse calico, four persons can be 
wall fed with animal and vegetable food at the rate of one penny 
a day. The chief vegetable food is the manioc and lotsa meal. 
These contain a very large proportion of starch, and when eaten 
alone for any length of time, produce most distressing heartburn. 
As we om-selves experienced in coming north, they also cause a 
weakness of vision, which occurs in the case of animals fed on 
pure gluten or amyllaceous matter only. I now discovered that 
when these starchy substances are eaten along with a proportion 
of ground-nuts, which contain a considerable quantity of oil, no 
injmious effects follow. 
While on the way to Cabango, we saw fresh tracks of elands, 
the first we had observed in this country, A poor little slave- 
gud, being ill, turned aside in the path, and, though we waited 
all the next day making search for her, she was lost. She was 
tall and slender for her age, as if of too quick growth, and pro¬ 
bably, unable to bear the fatigue of the march, lay down and slept 
in the forest, then, waldng in the dark, went farther and farther 
