emains near
its hole, where it is readily caught by the hand.

The Zambesi men thoroughly understood the characteristic marks of deep or
shallow water, and showed great skill in finding out the proper channel.
The Molimo is the steersman at the helm, the Mokadamo is the head canoe-
man, and he stands erect on the bows with a long pole in his hands, and
directs the steersman where to go, aiding the rudder, if necessary, with
his pole. The others preferred to stand and punt our boat, rather than
row with our long oars, being able to shove her ahead faster than they
could pull her. They are accustomed to short paddles. Our Mokadamo was
affected with moon-blindness, and could not see at all at night. His
comrades then led him about, and handed him his food. They thought that
it was only because his eyes rested all night, that he could see the
channel so well by day. At difficult places the Mokadamo sometimes,
however, made mistakes, and ran us aground; and the others, evidently
imbued with the spirit of resistance to constituted authority, and led by
Joao an aspirant for the office, jeered him for his stupidity. "Was he
asleep? Why did he allow the boat to come there? Could he not see the
channel was somewhere else?" At last the Mokadamo threw down the pole in
disgust, and told Joao he might be a Mokadamo himself. The office was
accepted with alacrity; but in a few minutes he too ran us into a worse
difficulty than his predecessor ever did, and was at once disrated amidst
the derision of his comrades.

On the 16th September, we arrived at the inhabited island of Kichokomane.
The usual way of approaching an unknown people is to call out in a
cheerful tone "Malonda!" Things for sale, or do you want to sell
anything? If we can obtain a man from the last village, he is employed,
though only useful in explaining to the next that we come in a friendly
way. The people here were shy of us at first, and could not be induced
to sell any food; until a woman, more adventurous than the rest, sold us
a fowl. This opened the market, and crowds came with fowls and meal, far
beyond our wants. The women are as ugly as those on Lake Nyassa, for who
can be handsome wearing the pelele, or upper-lip ring, of large
dimensions? We were once surprised to see young men wearing the pelele,
and were told that in the tribe of the Mabiha, on the south bank, men as
well as women wore them.

Along the left bank, above Kichokomane, is an