d for not having a present ready, and afterwards
brought us some meal, a roasted coney (_Hyrax capensis_), and a pot of
beer; he wished to be thought poor. The beer had come to him from a
distance; he had none of his own. Like the Manganja, these people salute
by clapping their hands. When a man comes to a place where others are
seated, before sitting down he claps his hands to each in succession, and
they do the same to him. If he has anything to tell, both speaker and
hearer clap their hands at the close of every paragraph, and then again
vigorously at the end of the speech. The guide, whom the headman gave
us, thus saluted each of his comrades before he started off with us.
There is so little difference in the language, that all the tribes of
this region are virtually of one family.

We proceeded still in the same direction, and passed only two small
hamlets during the day. Except the noise our men made on the march,
everything was still around us: few birds were seen. The appearance of a
whydahbird showed that he had not yet parted with his fine long plumes.
We passed immense quantities of ebony and lignum-vitae, and the tree from
whose smooth and bitter bark granaries are made for corn. The country
generally is clothed with a forest of ordinary-sized trees. We slept in
the little village near Sindabwe, where our men contrived to purchase
plenty of beer, and were uncommonly boisterous all the evening. We
breakfasted next morning under green wild date-palms, beside the fine
flowery stream, which runs through the charming valley of Zibah. We now
had Mount Chiperiziwa between us, and part of the river near Morumbwa,
having in fact come north about in order to avoid the difficulties of our
former path. The last of the deserters, a reputed thief, took French
leave of us here. He left the bundle of cloth he was carrying in the
path a hundred yards in front of where we halted, but made off with the
musket and most of the brass rings and beads of his comrade Shirimba, who
had unsuspectingly intrusted them to his care.

Proceeding S.W. up this lovely valley, in about an hour's time we reached
Sandia's village. The chief was said to be absent hunting, and they did
not know when he would return. This is such a common answer to the
inquiry after a headman, that one is inclined to think that it only means
that they wish to know the stranger's object before exposing their
superior to danger. As some of our men wer