line of women, about fourteen, all bearing their earthen
water-jars poised upon their heads. They were on their
way to the river Mudzi, in which they had dug deep holes
to get water. No sooner did they catch a glimpse of me
than the whole line suddenly broke, and a regular stampede
took place, the affrighted women throwing down their
gourds and taking to their heels in different directions.
Some ran past me, and some ran back. One young woman
I noticed making a fine spurt of fifty yards before she
disappeared in the bush.
A solitary figure remained standing defiant to the white
intruder. This was an old woman whom, from the form of
the lip, I could see was a Msenga slave. The appearance
of the old lioness was most amusing. Getting up to her
I presented her with a few stray beads and an empty
cartridge case which I happened to have in my pocket.
Her good-will was won at once. Repeating the word
“ Mzungo ” several times, she signed that her companions
were afraid of me.
I sat down and pointed to her snuff-box. After a few
more pantomimic nods and becks, just as though both were
deaf and dumb, we together snuffed the snuff of peace.
When I pointed to the fugitives, she laughed most heartily,
looking as though she thought, “ Ah, you and I are old
friends.”
Had the old woman and myself been able to converse,
there was one subje*ct upon which I am sure we would have
agreed. If our thoughts had been read, we should each
have been found meditating upon the extreme ugliness of
the other. The runaways would not return so long as I
stayed, and as I had exhausted all the signs I could think
of I bade good-bye to my new friend and hastened back
to the hut, where I found that Manaman, the lieutenant
A PIEBALD KAFFIR. 31
and cook, had ready a plate of millet-meal porridge, most
tasteless stuff without salt or milk. He had also cooked
a leg of the goat that had been presented to me at
the last town we passed. This was to be washed down
with the contents of a large gourd (msuko) of pombe,
whidh he had purchased with some of the precious beads,
of which there now remained only half a pound.
I observed numbers of women with the thin ring in the
upper lip similar to that worn by the Maltorikori.
A remarkable curiosity, too, appeared here, in the shape
of a piebald Kaffir. A portion of the side of his face was
blotched pink, contrasting strongly against the dark skin.
On the hands, wrists, and breast the same abnormity was
visible. The effect was strikingly ugly. In a slighter
degree, I remember seeing a similar monstrosity in the
northern regions of Mexico.
The towns through which we were now passing were
peopled by the Mtavara tribe. They suffer much from
sores and various skin diseases. The man who gave me
his hut was in a dreadful condition, his arms and legs
being one mass of sores.
At Masecha, the usual town scenes could be witnessed.
Lots of men were lounging lazily about the h u ts; children
were busily employed in; some unsightly operations on their
mothers’ head-gear; many of the people, in a kneeling
posture, were grinding the corn to meal between the stones
used for the purpose; while long lines of women moved
about carrying gourds of water upon their heads, looking as
erect as though they had been drilled by a military instructor.
The constant carrying of weights upon the head
tends to give a very erect bearing to most of the native
women. .
I was informed that these people did not among