e above the sea is 3350 feet.

Allah is a very common exclamation among all the people west of Nsama.
By advice of a guide whom we picked up at Kifurwa, we sent four
fathoms of calico to apprise Casembe of our coming: the Arabs usually
send ten fathoms; in our case it was a very superfluous notice, for
Casembe is said to have been telegraphed to by runners at every stage
of our progress after crossing the Kalongosi.

We remain by the Chungu till Casembe sends one of his counsellors to
guide us to his town. It has been so perpetually clouded over that we
have been unable to make out our progress, and the dense forest
prevented us seeing Moero as we wished: rain and thunder perpetually,
though the rain seldom fell where we were.

I saw pure white-headed swallows _(Psalidoprocne albiceps)_ skimming
the surface of the Chungu as we crossed it. The soil is very rich.
Casembe's ground-nuts are the largest I have seen, and so is the
cassava. I got over a pint of palm oil for a cubit of calico.

A fine young man, whose father had been the Casembe before this one,
came to see us; he is in the background now, otherwise he would have
conducted us to the village: a son or heir does not succeed to the
chieftainship here.

_21st November, 1867._--The River Lunde was five miles from Chungu. It
is six yards wide where we crossed it, but larger further down;
springs were oozing out of its bed: we then entered on a broad plain,
covered with bush, the trees being all cleared off in building a
village. When one Casembe dies, the man who succeeds him invariably
removes and builds his pembwe, or court, at another place: when Dr.
Lacerda died, the Casembe moved to near the north end of the Mofwe.
There have been seven Casembes in all. The word means a _general_.

The plain extending from the Lunde to the town of Casembe is level,
and studded pretty thickly with red anthills, from 15 to 20 feet high.
Casembe has made a broad path from his town to the Lunde, about a
mile-and-a-half long, and as broad as a carriage-path. The chief's
residence is enclosed in a wall of reeds, 8 or 9 feet high, and 300
yards square, the gateway is ornamented with about sixty human skulls;
a shed stands in the middle of the road before we come to the gate,
with a cannon dressed in gaudy cloths. A number of noisy fellows
stopped our party, and demanded tribute for the cannon; I burst
through them, and the rest followed without giving anything: they were
afraid