out the upper front teeth. That case seems to indicate a
tribal mark, not a voluntary act of mature years, but the
work of the painstaking parent. Tribes cannot distinguish
aliens by the teeth, but by the tatoo marks.
The old Nyanja chief when he visited me was accompanied
by a slave-girl, carrying a cup of what was the
dirtiest-looking compound that I had ever looked upon.
Mara informed me it was milk, and it was accepted, notwithstanding
that it looked as if the whole tribe had rinsed
their hands in the offensive liquid. Kaffir presents mean
nothing but exchange, so in return I handed over some of
the yellow beads of which my visitor did not at all approve,
and it was useless to tell him that no others could be
had.
When I asked him for boys to go to Blantyre, his reply
was that for seven fathoms of calico he would show me the
way! We could not come to terms, for he was not to be
prevailed upon to agree to take payment when the. mission
was reached.
Ever clinging to the hope that some day my ship would
come in, as the saying goes, I had found a convenient open
spot high up among the bushes and rocky slabs and boulders
that lay close to the back of the village, and that position
became my “ lpok-out.”
Daily, at all hours, my looks were cast in every direction.
I lay under the shade of the trees. Between the hills of
loose lying rock and scrub lay stretched the corn patches of
the Ajawa, primitive tillers of soil, whom I watched going
through their operations of piling and burning heaps of
rubbish, wherewith to fertilise the land, and. likewise clear it,
for seed time was close at hand. Some of the young wives,
although weighted with ornaments, were devoid of disfiguring
stripes, and even picturesque when negligently
adorned with their encumbering decorations; for their heads
were like mops of beads, and their brass-clad arms and legs
shone brilliantly in the sun. Upon their backs their tiny
offspring were spread like toads and tied tightly with a
wrap of cloth. The small head was allowed perfect freedom
as the mother turned over the earth with her heart-
shaped iron hoe, and nod, nod, nod, it went at every stroke,
the mouth—wide open like the beak of an expectant young
bird—inhaling the fire of a tropical air.
The old women in such circumstances always appear in
strong force, and seem to accept the situation as life-long
drudges with the utmost equanimity, chattering during their
work with all the vigour of the sex.
Occasionally canoes might be seen putting off from the
shore to seek the produce of the lake, the fish resembling
a perch in shape. From whatever cause, the people appeared
to be very lazy fishermen, and were very reluctant to part
with the fish they did catch. One day I managed to persuade
a little speechless boy that yellow beads were much
nicer than fish, and in this way had an opportunity of
cooking some by passing a stick through them and holding
them over the fire. They are tolerably, good but very bony;
I may even say delicious but dangerous.
So long as daylight lasted I managed to keep both mind
and body active; but the evenings and nights were long,
and always brought lowering thoughts of troubles and cares.
Often I attempted to write by the light of the moon, but on
a particular occasion whieh is now in my memory, writing
was impossible ; for the wind blew with great violence from
a north-easterly direction, rolling large waves shoreward to
break wildly upon the beach, while through the dark gorges
of the rock-formed hills it swept along howling and whistling
with the anger of a tempest. I lay under the trunk of the