638 
PKACTICE WITH FLAKE-GOLD. 
Chap. XXXI. 
compasses at Tete, and extend the other three and a half degrees, 
bringing it round from the north-east of Tete by west, and then to 
the south-east, we nearly touch or include all the known gold-pro¬ 
ducing country. As the gold on this circumference is found in 
coarser grains than in the streams running towards the centre, or 
Tete, I imagine that the real gold-field lies round about the coal¬ 
field ; and, if I am right in the conjecture, then we have coal 
enchcled by a gold-field, and abundance of wood, water, and provi¬ 
sions—a combination not often met with in the world. The inha¬ 
bitants are not unfavourable to washings, conducted on the principle 
formerly mentioned. At present they wash only when in want 
of a httle calico. They know the value of gold perfectly well, 
for they bring it for sale in goose-quills, and demand 24 yards of 
calico for one penful. Wlien the rivers in the district of Manica 
and other gold-washing places have been flooded, they leave a 
coating of mud on the banks. The natives observe the spots which 
dry soonest, and commence digging there, in firm belief that gold 
lies beneath. They are said not to dig deeper than their chins, 
believing that if they did so the gTOund would fall in and kfil 
them. When they find a apiece or flake of gold, they bury it again, 
from the superstitious idea that this is the seed of the gold, and, 
though they know the value of it well, they prefer losuag it rather 
than the whole future crop. This conduct seemed to me so very 
unlikely in men who bring the dust m quills, and even put in a 
few seeds of a certain plant as a charm to prevent their losiug any 
of it in the way, that I doubted the authority of my informant; 
but I found the report verified by aU the Portuguese who Imow 
the native language and mode of thinking, and give the statement 
for what it is worth. If it is really practised, the custom may have 
been introduced by some knowing one who wished to defraud the 
chiefs of their due; for we are informed in Portuguese history that 
in former times, these pieces or flakes of gold were considered the 
perquisites of the chiefs. 
Major Sicard, the Commandant, whose kindness to me and 
my people was unbounded, presented a rosary made of the gold 
of the country, the workmanship of a native of Tete, to my 
little daughter; also specimens of the gold-dust of tlmee different 
places, which, with the coal of Muatize and Morongoze, are depo¬ 
sited in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn-street, London. 
