LIVINGSTONE ON THE ZAMBESI 323 
attitude of marked hostility. But on being told that the white men 
were English, and that statement receiving some support from the 
entirely novel boat in which they traveled, the natives became friendly, 
and Tingane, a notorious chief, and a known foe to the Portuguese, 
extended his hospitality and protection toward them. 
A hundred miles “as the crow flies” from the confluence of the 
Shire and Zambesi—or, if the meanderings of the river are taken into 
account, some two hundred miles from that point—further navigation 
was prevented by the lowest of those large cataracts which Living¬ 
stone afterwards called the Murchison Cataracts. As the natives were 
too suspicious—they kept watch over the little party night and day— 
for it to be prudent to advance along the bank, the Doctor sent friendly 
messages to the neighboring chiefs, with a view to future relations, 
and returned to Tete. 
A month later, he and Kirk again arrived at the foot of the falls, 
and, traveling in a northeasterly direction across country, they came 
to the shores of Lake Shirwa on the 19th of April, 1859. This lake 
had never been heard of before, and consequently it was a genuine, 
an absolute discovery. Some seventy miles in length and twenty in 
breadth, Lake Shirwa lies amid beautiful scenery. The lofty ridge of 
Zomba, nine thousand feet in height, which separates the lake from 
the Shire, is its western boundary; and on the east rises the Malanje 
chain, a ridge of equal magnitude. But the importance of this dis¬ 
covery was enhanced tenfold when Livingstone learnt from the natives 
around its shores that there was another lake to the north, only 
separated from the Shirwa by a narrow belt of land, and compared 
with which the Shirwa “was nothing in size.” 
In August the Shire was ascended for the third time. The people 
on this occasion were in nearly every case peaceably inclined, and Liv¬ 
ingstone had ample opportunity to study their customs and inquire 
into their beliefs. It was here he first met with the pelele contrivance, 
which in the opinion of the native women so greatly adorns them. 
When told it was ugly, they replied much as their European sisters 
might—“Really! It is the fashion.” The pelele consists of a ring so 
inserted in the upper lip as to draw it out in a horizontal line at least 
two inches beyond the nose. The ring may be of metal or ivory, and 
is inserted at an early age. 
