They hailed us from the bank in the evening with “ Why
don’t you come and sleep on' shcre like other people ?”
The answer they received from our Makololo, who now
felt as independent as the Banyai, was, “We are held to
the bottom with iron; you may see we are not like your
Bazungu.”
This hint, a little amplified, saved us from the usual exactions.
I t is pleasant to give a present, but that pleasure the
Banyai usually deny to strangers by making' it a fine, and
demanding it in such a supercilious way, that ’ only a
sorely-cowed trader could bear it. They often refuse to
touch what is offered—throw it down and leave it—sneer
at the trader s slaves, and refuse a passage until the tribute
is raised to the utmost extent of his means.
Leaving the steamer next morning, we proceeded on foot,
accompanied by a native Portuguese and his men and a
dozen Makololo, who carried our baggage. The morning was
pleasant, the hills on our right furnished for a time a delightful
shade; but before long the path grew frightfully rough,
and the hills no longer shielded us from the blazing sun.
Scarcely a vestige of a track was now visible; and, indeed,
had not our guide assured us to the contrary, we should have
been innocent of even the suspicion of a way along the patches
of soft yielding sand, and on the great rocks over which we so
painfully clambered. These rocks have a singular appearance,
from being dislocated and twisted in every direction,
and covered with a thin black glaze, as if highly polished and
coated with lamp-black varnish. This seems to have been
deposited while the river was in flood, for it covers only
those rocks which lie between the highest water-mark
and a line about four feet above the lowest. Travellers
who have visited the rapids of the Orinoco and the Congo
say that the rocks there have a similar appearance, and it is
attributed to some deposit from the water, formed only when
the current is strong. This may account for it in part here,
as it prevails only where the narrow river is confined between
masses of rock, backed by high hills, and where the current in
floods is known to be the strongest; and it does not exist where
the rocks are only on one side, with a sandy beach opposite,
and a broad expanse of river between. The hot rocks burnt
the thick soles of our men’s feet, and sorely fatigued ourselves.
Our first day’s march did not exceed four miles in a straight
line, and that we found more than enough to be pleasant.
A few inhabitants, of the tribe called Badèrna, were seen
living in the valleys. They cultivate small quantities of
maize, tobacco, and cotton in the available hollows, and the
holcus sorghum, or as they call it “ mapira , on the steep
slopes of their mountains. Pish are caught in the river with
casting nets. Zebras, antelopes, and other animals are taken
by driving them into ravines, strong nets made of baobab-
bark being stretched across the narrow outlets.
The state of insecurity in which the Badèrna tribe live
is indicated by the habit of hiding their provisions in the
hills, and keeping only a small quantity in their huts; they
strip a particular species of tree of its bitter bark, to which
both mice and monkeys are known to have an antipathy, and,
turning the bark inside out, sew it into cylindrical vessels
for their grain, and bury them in holes and in crags on the
wooded hill-sides. By this means, should à marauding party
.plunder their huts, they save a supply of còrn. They “ could
give us no information, and they had no food ; Chisaka s
men had robbed them a few weéks before.
“ Never mind,” said our native Portuguese, “ they will sell
•you plenty when you return, they are afraid of you now, &s