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nozzles, through which the air was driven by working the loose covering of the tops up and down by means of a small piece of wood attached to their centres. The blacksmith said that tin was obtained from a people in the north called Marendi, and that he had made it into bracelets; we had never heard before of tin being found in the country.

Our course then lay down the bed of a rivulet called Mapatizia, in which there was much calc spar, with calcareous schist, and then the Tette gray sandstone, which usually overlies coal. On the 6th we arrived at the islet Chilombe, belonging to Sinamane, where the Zambesi runs broad and smooth again, and were well received by Sinamane himself. Never was Sunday more welcome to the weary than this, the last we were to spend with our convoy.

Sinamane is an active-looking man of a light complexion, and is the ablest and most energetic of the Batoka chiefs we have met. He was independent until lately, when he sent in his adhesion to Linyanti; and, as all that Sekeletu asks of him is not to furnish the Matebele with canoes when they

334

NATIVE DRESS.

CHAP. XV.

wish to cross the Zambesi to attack the Makololo, he will probably continue loyal. Leshore's mission, as we have said, was to ratify this vassal-ship, to request Sinamane to furnish us with what canoes he could, and to assure him that Moshobotwane had not received, and never would receive, authority from Sekeletu to go on forays among his countrymen. This message was communicated also to the offending Batoka at the Falls, with whom it would have a good effect. We now saw many good-looking young men and women. The dresses of the ladies are identical with those of Nubian women in Upper Egypt. To a belt on the waist a great number of strings are attached, to hang all round the person. These fringes are about six or eight inches long. The matrons wear in addition a skin cut like the tails of the coatee

Waist-belt.

formerly worn by our dragoons. The younger girls wear the waist-belt exhibited in the wood-cut, ornamented with shells, and have the fringes only in front. Marauding parties of Batoka, calling themselves Makololo, have for some time had a wholesome dread of Sinamane's "long spears." Before going to Tette, our Batoka friend, Masakasa, was one of a party that came to steal some of the young women; but Sinamane, to their utter astonishment, attacked them so furiously that the survivors barely escaped with their lives. Masakasa had to flee so fast that he threw away his shield, his spear, and his clothes, and returned home a wiser and a sadder man.

CHAP. XVI.

SINAMANE'S PEOPLE.

335

CHAPTER XVI.

Sinamane.-Canoe Navigation.-Moemba.-Water-drawing Stockades.-Generosity of the Batoka.-Purchase of a Canoe.-Ant-lions.-Herd of Hippopotami. Cataract Doctor of Kariba.-Albinos, human and hippopotamic.Meet Sequasha, not quite so Black as painted. -Native Mode of Salutation. -Karivua.-Gallant Conduct of the Makololo.-Breakfast interrupted by Mambo Kazai.-Dinner spoiled by pretended Aid.-Banyai.-Rapids of Kebrabasa.-Dr. Kirk in Danger.-Sad Loss of MSS., etc.-Death of one of our Donkeys.-Amiable Squeamishness of Makololo.-Dinner à la Panzo. -Reach Tette on the 23d of November.-"Jacks of all Trades."-Imposition practiced on the King of Portugal's Colonial Scheme.

SINAMANE'S people cultivate large quantities of tobacco, which they manufacture into balls for the Makololo market. Twenty balls, weighing about three quarters of a pound each, are sold for a hoe. The tobacco is planted on low moist spots on the banks of the Zambesi, and was in flower at the time we were there, in October. Sinamane's people appear to have abundance of food, and are all in good condition. He could sell us only two of his canoes, but lent us three more to carry us as far as Moemba's, where he thought others might be purchased. They were manned by his own canoe-men, who were to bring them back. The river is about 250 yards wide, and flows serenely between high banks toward the northeast. Below Sinamane's the banks are often worn down fifty feet, and composed of shingle and gravel of igneous rocks, sometimes set in a ferruginous matrix. The bottom is all gravel and shingle, how formed we can not imagine, unless in pot-holes in the deep fissure above. The bottom above the Falls, save a few rocks close by them, is generally sandy or of soft tufa. Every damp spot is covered with maize,

336

SINAMANE'S CANOES.

CHAP. XVI.

pumpkins, water-melons, tobacco, and hemp. There is a pretty numerous Batoka population on both sides of the river. As we sailed slowly down, the people saluted us from the banks by clapping their hands. A head man even hailed us, and brought a generous present of corn and pumpkins.

Moemba owns a rich island, called Mosanga, a mile in length, on which his village stands. He has the reputation of being a brave warrior, and is certainly a great talker; but he gave us strangers something better than a stream of words. We received a handsome present of corn, and the fattest goat we had ever seen; it resembled mutton. His people were as liberal as their chief. They brought two large baskets of corn and a lot of tobacco as a sort of general contribution to the travelers. One of Sinamane's canoe-men, after trying to get his pay, deserted here, and went back before the stipulated time with the story that the Englishmen had stolen the canoes. Shortly after sunrise next morning, Sinamane came into the village with fifty of his "long spears," evidently determined to retake his property by force; he saw at a glance that his man had deceived him. Moemba rallied him for coming on a wild-goose chase. "Here are your canoes left with me, your men have all been paid, and the Englishmen are now asking me to sell my canoes." Sinamane said little to us, only observing that he had been deceived by his follower. A single remark of his chief's caused the foolish fellow to leave suddenly, evidently much frightened and crestfallen. Sinamane had been very kind to us, and, as he was looking on when we gave our present to Moemba, we made him also an additional offering of some beads, and parted good friends. Moemba, having heard that we had called the people of Sinamane together to tell them about our Savior's mission to man, and to pray with them, associated the

CHAP. XVI.

FAIR DEALING OF MOEMBA.

337 idea of Sunday with the meeting, and, before any thing of the sort was proposed, came and asked that he and his people might be "sundayed" as well as his neighbors, and be given a little seed wheat and fruit-tree seeds, with which request, of course, we very willingly complied. The idea of praying direct to the Supreme Being, though not quite new to all, seems to strike their minds so forcibly that it will not be forgotten. Sinamane said that he prayed to God, Morungo, and made drink-offerings to him. Though he had heard of us,

he had never seen white men before.

When bargaining with Moemba for canoes, we were gratified to observe that he wished to deal fairly and honorably with us. "Our price was large; but he had only two spare canoes. One was good-he would sell that; the other he would not sell us, because it had a bad trick of capsizing, and spilling whatever was inside it into the river; he would lend us his own two large ones until we could buy others below." The best canoes are made from a large species of thorny acacia. These trees were now in seed; and some of the natives boiled the pods in water, and mixed the decoction with their beer, to increase its intoxicating qualities. In times of great hunger the beans too are eaten, though very astringent.

We touched at Makonde's village to buy a canoe. They were having a gay time, singing, dancing, and drinking their beer extra strong. A large potful was at once brought to us. The chief spoke but little; his orator did the talking and trading for him, and seemed anxious to show him how clev erly he could do both. Many tiny stockades stand on the edge of the river; they are built there to protect the women from the crocodiles while filling their water-pots. This is in advance of the Portuguese; for, although many women are annually carried off by crocodiles at Senna and Tette, so lit

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