ceremonious. When we meet anyone he turns aside and sits down: we clap
the hand on the chest and say, "Re peta--re peta," that is, "we pass,"
or "let us pass:" this is responded to at once by a clapping of the
hands together. When a person is called at a distance he gives two
loud claps of assent; or if he rises from near a superior he does, the
same thing, which is a sort of leave-taking.

We have to ask who are the principal chiefs in the direction which we
wish to take, and decide accordingly. Zomba was pointed out as a chief
on a range of hills on our west: beyond him lies Undi m'senga. I had
to take this route, as my people have a very vivid idea of the danger
of going northwards towards the Mazitu. We made more southing than we
wished. One day beyond Zomba and W.S.W. is the part called Chindando,
where the Portuguese formerly went for gold. They don't seem to have
felt it worth while to come here, as neither ivory nor gold could be
obtained if they did. The country is too full of people to allow any
wild animals elbow-room: even the smaller animals are hunted down by
means of nets and dogs.

We rested at Pachoma; the headman offering a goat and beer, but I
declined, and went on to Molomba. Here Kauma's carriers turned because
a woman had died that morning as we left the village. They asserted
that had she died before we started not a man would have left: this
shows a reverence for death, for the woman was no relative of any of
them. The headman of Molomba was very poor but very liberal, cooking
for us and presenting a goat: another headman from a neighbouring
village, a laughing, good-natured old man, named Chikala, brought beer
and a fowl in the morning. I asked him to go on with us to Mironga, it
being important, as above-mentioned, to have the like of his kind in
our company, and he consented. We saw Mount Ngala in the distance,
like a large sugar-loaf shot up in the air: in our former route to
Kasungu we passed north of it.

_16th October, 1866._--Crossed the rivulet Chikuyo going N. for the
Lake, and Mironga being but one-and-a-half hour off, we went on to
Chipanga: this is the proper name of what on the Zambesi is corrupted
into Shupanga. The headman, a miserable hemp-consuming[31] leper, fled
from us. We were offered a miserable hut, which we refused, Chikala
meanwhile went through the whole village seeking a better, which we
ultimately found: it was not in this chief to be generous, though
Chikala did