s
were enjoying the cool shade of the wild fig-trees which are always
planted at villages. It is a sacred tree all over Africa and India,
and the tender roots which drop down towards the ground are used as
medicine--a universal remedy. Can it be a tradition of its being like
the tree of life, which Archbishop Whately conjectures may have been
used in Paradise to render man immortal? One kind of fig-tree is often
seen hacked all over to get the sap, which is used as bird-lime;
bark-cloth is made of it too. I like to see the men weaving or
spinning, or reclining under these glorious canopies, as much as I
love to see our more civilized people lolling on their sofas or
ottomans.

The first rain--a thunder shower--fell in the afternoon, air in shade
before it 92 deg.; wet bulb 74 deg. At noon the soil in the sun was 140
deg., perhaps more, but I was afraid of bursting the thermometer, as it
was graduated only a few degrees above that. This rain happened at the
same time that the sun was directly overhead on his way south; it was
but a quarter of an inch, but its effect was to deprive us of all
chance of getting the five carriers we needed, all were off to their
gardens to commit the precious seed to the soil. We got three, but no
one else would come, so we have to remain here over to-day (30th
October).

_30th October, 1866._--The black traders come from Tette to this
country to buy slaves, and as a consequence here we come to bugs
again, which we left when we passed the Arab slave-traders' beat.

_31st October, 1866._--We proceed westwards, and a little south
through a country covered with forest trees, thickly planted, but
small, generally of bark-cloth and gum-copal trees, masukos,
rhododendrons, and a few acacias. At one place we saw ten wild hogs in
a group, but no other animal, though marks of elephants, buffaloes,
and other animals having been about in the wet season were very
abundant. The first few miles were rather more scant of water than
usual, but we came to the Leue, a fine little stream with plenty of
water sand from 20 to 30 yards wide; it is said by the people to flow
away westwards into the Loangwa.

_1st November 1866._--In the evening we made the Chigumokire, a nice
rivulet, where we slept, and the next morning we proceeded to Kangene,
whose village is situated on a mass of mountains, and to reach which
we made more southing than we wished. Our appearance on the ascent of
the hill caused alarm, and