o travel along its
banks, until we came to people who had successfully defended themselves
against the hordes of the Ajawa. By employing the men of one village to
go forward and explain who we were to the next, we managed to prevent the
frightened inhabitants from considering us a fresh party of Ajawa, or of
Portuguese slaving agents. Here they had cultivated maize, and were
willing to sell, but no persuasion could induce them to give us guides to
the chieftainess, Nyango. They evidently felt that we were not to be
trusted; though, as we had to certify to our own character, our
companions did not fail "to blow our own trumpet," with blasts in which
modesty was quite out of the question. To allay suspicion, we had at
last to refrain from mentioning the lady's name.

It would be wearisome to repeat the names of the villages we passed on
our way to the north-west. One was the largest we ever saw in Africa,
and quite deserted, with the usual sad sight of many skeletons lying
about. Another was called Tette. We know three places of this name,
which fact shows it to be a native word; it seems to mean a place where
the water rushes over rocks. A third village was called Chipanga (a
great work), a name identical with the Shupanga of the Portuguese. This
repetition of names may indicate that the same people first took these
epithets in their traditional passage from north to south.

At this season of the year the nights are still cold, and the people,
having no crops to occupy their attention, do not stir out till long
after the sun is up. At other times they are off to their fields before
the day dawns, and the first sound one hears is the loud talking of men
and women, in which they usually indulge in the dark to scare off beasts
by the sound of the human voice. When no work is to be done, the first
warning of approaching day is the hemp-smoker's loud ringing cough.

Having been delayed one morning by some negotiation about guides, who
were used chiefly to introduce us to other villages, we two whites walked
a little way ahead, taking the direction of the stream. The men having
been always able to find out our route by the prints of our shoes, we
went on for a number of miles. This time, however, they lost our track,
and failed to follow us. The path was well marked by elephants, hyenas,
pallahs, and zebras, but for many a day no human foot had trod it. When
the sun went down a deserted hamlet was reached, wher