according to Ali, very
dark, but very comely, though they do wear the lip-ring. They carry
their ivory, gum-copal, and slaves to Ibo or Wibo.

_29th April, 1866._--We spend Sunday, the 29th, on the banks of the
Rovuma, at a village called Nachuchu, nearly opposite Konayumba, the
first of the Matambwe, whose chief is called Kimbembe. Ali draws a
very dark picture of the Makonde. He says they know nothing of a
Deity, they pray to their mothers when in distress or dying; know
nothing of a future state, nor have they any religion except a belief
in medicine; and every headsman is a doctor. No Arab has ever tried to
convert them, but occasionally a slave taken to the coast has been
circumcised in order to be clean; some of them pray, and say they know
not the ordeal or muavi. The Nassick boys failed me when I tried to
communicate some knowledge through them. They say they do not
understand the Makonde language, though some told me that they came
from Ndonde's, which is the head-quarters of the Makonde. Ali says
that the Makonde blame witches for disease and death; when one of a
village dies, the whole population departs, saying "that is a bad
spot." They are said to have been notorious for fines, but an awe has
come over them, and no complaints have been made, though our animals
in passing the gardens have broken a good deal of corn. Ali says they
fear the English. This is an answer to my prayer for influence on the
minds of the heathen. I regret that I cannot speak to them that good
of His name which I ought.

I went with the Makonde to see a specimen of the gum-copal tree in the
vicinity of this village. The leaves are in pairs, glossy green, with
the veins a little raised on both face and back; the smaller branches
diverge from the same point: the fruit, of which we saw the shells,
seems to be a nut; some animal had in eating them cut them through.
The bark of the tree is of a light ash colour; the gum was oozing from
the bark at wounded places, and it drops on the ground from branches;
it is thus that insects are probably imbedded in the gum-copal. The
people dig in the vicinity of modern trees in the belief that the more
ancient trees which dropped their gum before it became an article of
commerce must have stood there. "In digging, none may be found on one
day but God (Mungu) may give it to us on the next." To this all the
Makonde present assented, and showed me the consciousness of His
existence was present in their