588 
A MAN TOSSED BY A BUFFALO. 
Chap. XXIX. 
inappropriate. The statement of Peirara that twenty negroes were 
slaughtered in a day, was not confirmed by any one else, though 
numbers may have been killed on some particular occasion during 
the time of his visit, for we find throughout all the country north 
of 20°, which I consider to be real negro, the custom of slaugh¬ 
tering victims to accompany the departed soul of a chief, and 
human sacrifices are occasionally offered, and certain parts of 
the bodies are used as charms. It is on account of the exist¬ 
ence of such rites, with the similarity of the language, and the 
fact that the names of rivers are repeated again and again from 
north to south tlmough all that region, that I consider them to 
have been originally one family. The last expedition to Cazembe 
was somewhat of the same nature as the others, and failed in esta- 
bhslnng a commerce, because the people of Cazembe, who had 
come to Tete to invite the Portuguese to visit them, had not been 
allowed to trade with whom they might. As it had not been free- 
trade there, Cazembe did not see why it should be ffee-trade at 
Ills town; he accordmgly would not allow his people to furnish 
the party with food except at Ins price; and the expedition, being 
half-starved in consequence, came away voting unanimously that 
Cazembe was a great bore. 
When we left the Loangwa we thought we had got rid of the 
lidls; but there are some behind Mazanzwe, though five or six 
miles off from the river. Tsetse and the hills had destroyed two 
ridmg oxen, and when the httle one that I now rode knocked 
up, I was forced to march on foot. The bush being very dense 
and liigh, we were going along among the trees, when three buf¬ 
faloes, which we had unconsciously passed above the wind, thought 
that they were smTOunded by men, and dashed through our fine. 
My ox set off at a gallop, and when I could manage to glance 
back, I saw one of the men up m the aff about five feet above a 
buffalo, which was tearing along with a stream of blood running 
down his flank. When I got back to the poor fellow, I found 
that he had hghted on his face, and, though he had been carried 
on the horns of the buffalo about twenty yards before getting the 
final toss, the skin was not pierced nor was a bone broken. When 
the beasts appeared, he had tin-own down liis load and stabbed one 
in the side. It turned suddenly upon him, and, before he could 
use a tree for defence, carried him off. We shampooed him well, 
