210 
THE NEW AFRICA 
We were told that the iron the smith was using came from 
the north across the Zambesi, and that there were no smelteries 
in their own country, a fact borne out by old Sakoonima’s trad¬ 
ing journey into the Barotzi Valley for ironware—a circum¬ 
stance of more convincing value than any assertion of the 
natives, whose custom it is, for reasons of their own, to answer 
all questions put by strangers by prevarication. 
