rging the orifice till a shell can be inserted.
The lip appears drawn out beyond the nose, and gives them a very ugly
appearance. As Sekwebu remarked: "These women want to make their mouths
like those of ducks." The commonest of these rings are made of bamboo,
but others are of ivory or metal. When the wearer tries to smile, the
contraction of the muscles turns the ring upwards, so that its upper
edge comes in front of the eyes, the nose appearing through the middle,
while the whole front teeth are exposed by the motion, exhibiting the
way in which they have been clipped to resemble the fangs of a cat or a
crocodile.

On their next halt Seole, the chief of the village, instead of receiving
them in a friendly way, summoned his followers and prepared for an
attack. The reason was soon discovered. It appeared that an Italian,
who had married the chief's daughter, having armed a party of fifty
slaves with guns, had ascended the river in a canoe from Tete, and
attacked several inhabited islands beyond Makaba, taking large numbers
of prisoners and much ivory. As he descended again with his booty, his
party was dispersed and he himself was killed while attempting to escape
on foot. Seole imagined that the doctor was another Italian.

This was the first symptom of the abominable slave trade they met with
on the east side of the continent. Had not the chief with whom they had
previously stayed arrived to explain matters, Seole might have given
them much trouble.

Mburuma, another chief of the same tribe, had laid a plan to plunder the
party by separating them, but the doctor, suspecting treachery, kept his
people together. They had on a previous occasion plundered a party of
traders bringing English goods from Mozambique.

On the 14th of January they reached the confluence of the Loangwa and
the Zambesi.

Here the doctor discovered the ruins of a town, with the remains of a
church in its midst. The situation was well chosen, with lofty hills in
the rear and a view of the two rivers in front. On one side of the
church lay a broken bell, with the letters IHS and a cross. This he
found was a Portuguese settlement called Zumbo. The conduct of Mburuma
and his people gave Dr Livingstone much anxiety, as he could not help
dreading that they might attack him the next morning. His chief regret
was that his efforts for the welfare of the teeming population in that
great region would thus be frustrated by savages, of who