matter of course, I knew that they referred to Blantyre in
the Shire river highlands.
The Ajawa, or Nyanja, would not risk their canoes on the
Shire river, owing to a fear of the hippopotamus; and not
a man could be enlisted as a carrier or guide without payment
in advance.
Amidst all these annoyances a trouble that could not
have been unlooked for, but was a crushing addition to my
misfortunes, fell upon me. Through the wretched living, I
was stricken with dysentery. Owing to this I could no
longer support the Maravi. I could not walk as I had been
doing, therefore game could not be had, for there was none
to be found within easy distance.
With an impressively solemn face Mara would come before
me shuffling his feet as he said:—“ As fazendas estao
acabados! Oh ! gue faremos agora ? ” (The goods are done.
O h ! what will you do now ?) “ What will you do ? ” I
would reply, answering his question by asking another.
“ Tenho a barriga cheia ! ” (you see I have a full stomach)
he would say, looking down with the liveliest satisfaction
upon his distended abdomen; for poor Mara had but one
ambition, and that was to increase as far as possible this telltale
curve of plenty.
The other two Maravi had by this time taken French
leave.
After a conversation of the kind I speak of, Mara would
leave m e ; for evidently he had found snug and hospitable
quarters in some of the near villages. In the evening he
would return, bringing with him a small calabash of pombe,
which he would place before me with a knowing nod, as
much as to say drink that and be strong. I can never
forget the old fellow’s ridiculous stories of how people were
fattened. He informed me that once he had a good
master on the Zambesi. He had first gone to him very
f.hin and very tired, being exhausted by many days’ journey
in the heat, with no sustenance; as a matter of fact he
had arrived a thorough skeleton. But in. only a few
days, through the bountiful supply that was given him, he
became quite fat, a circumstance which he endeavoured to
illustrate by movements of his hands, intended to show the
extraordinary proportions he had attained under liberal
treatment. All this performance was gone through in the
hope that it would act as a tonic for my unfortunate self.
What he could have looked like in the days of plenty
which he described with so much affection I cannot pretend
to imagine; but his picture, as he sat beside me there,
might be portrayed most exactly by the use of a pair of
compasses, for he was all radiating semi-circles. Mara told
me also that he had wives and fields on the Zambesi, and
belonged to a good master.
One morning an old Nyanja chief, one of the tallest
black men I had. seen, visited me. His loins were scantily
draped with skins, and he had very few tatoo marks upon
his body, although a conspicuous peculiarity was that his
upper teeth were neatly filed each in crescent form with the
horns downwards. No distinct, tribe which I have come
across seemed to have a regular mode with regard to teeth-
filing except the Mashona. The different tribes necessarily
have their distinguishing tribal tatoo marks ; but there is no
recognised rule in connection with the piercing of holes for
studs, ear-rings, lip-rings (ja-ja), &c., or for the filing of the
teeth.*
The Banyai tribe, which I encountered on the Zambesi,
I have already referred to as having a practice of knocking
* All the women I have seen belonging to Msenga on the Zambesi wore
the upper lip ring ornament.
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