Chap. XXXI. 
TETE; ITS POPULATION. 
629 
Banyai, and Major Sicard assured me that to strangers its bite 
is more especially dangerous, as it sometimes causes fatal fever. 
It may please our homoeopathic friends to hear that, in curing the 
bite of the tampan, the natives administer one of the insects 
bruised in the medicine employed. 
The village of Tete is built on a long slope down to the river, 
the fort .being close to the water. The rock beneath is grey 
sandstone, and has the appearance of being crushed away from 
the river: the strata have thus a crumpled form. The hollow 
between each crease is a street, the houses being built upon the 
projecting fold. The rocks at the top of the slope are much 
higher than the fort, and of course completely command it. 
There is then a large valley, and beyond that, an oblong hill 
called Karueira. The whole of the adjacent country is rocky 
and broken, but every available spot is under cultivation. The 
stone houses in Tete are cemented with mud instead of lime, and 
thatched with reeds and grass. The rains, having washed out the 
mud between the stones, give all the houses a rough untidy 
appearance. No lime was known to be found, nearer than 
Mozambique; some used in making seats in the verandahs, 
had actually been brought all that distance. The Portuguese, 
evidently, knew nothing of the pink and white marbles, which I 
found at the Mbai, and another rivulet, named the Unguesi, near 
it, and of which I brought home specimens; nor yet of the 
dolomite which lies so near to Zumbo; they might have 
burned the marble into lime without going so far as Mozam¬ 
bique. There are about thiidy European houses; the rest are 
native, and of wattle and daub. A wall about ten feet high 
is intended to enclose the village, but most of the native inha¬ 
bitants prefer to live on different spots outside. There are 
about 1200 huts in all, which with European households would 
give a population of about 4500 souls. Only a small propor¬ 
tion of these, however, live on the spot; the majority are en¬ 
gaged in agricultural operations in the adjacent country. Gene¬ 
rally there are not more than 2000 people resident, for, compared 
with what it was, Tete is now a ruin. The number of Portu¬ 
guese is very small; if we exclude the military, it is under 
twenty. Lately, however, 105 soldiers were sent from Portugal 
to Senna, where in one year twenty-five were cut off by fever. 
