These Little
Brooklets Came Down From The Range On Our Left, And The Water Was
Deliciously Cool.
When we came abreast of the peak Chirobve, the people would no longer
give us guides.
They were afraid of their enemies, whose dwellings
we now had on our east; and, proceeding without any one to lead us,
or to introduce us to the inhabitants, we were perplexed by all the
paths running zigzag across instead of along the valley. They had
been made by the villagers going from the hamlets on the slopes to
their gardens in the meadows below. To add to our difficulties, the
rivulets and mountain-torrents had worn gullies some thirty or forty
feet deep, with steep sides that could not be climbed except at
certain points. The remaining inhabitants on the flank of the range
when they saw strangers winding from side to side, and often
attempting to cross these torrent beds at impossible places, screamed
out their shrill war-alarm, and made the valley ring with their wild
outcries. It was war, and war alone, and we were too deep down in
the valley to make our voices heard in explanation. Fortunately,
they had burned off the long grass to a great extent. It only here
and there hid them from us. Selecting an open spot, we spent a night
regarded by all around us as slave-hunters, but were undisturbed,
though the usual way of treating an enemy in this part of the country
is by night attack.
The nights at the altitude of the valley were cool, the lowest
temperature shown being 37 degrees; at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. it was 58
degrees, about the average temperature of the day; at mid-day 82
degrees, and sunset 70 degrees. Our march was very much hindered by
the imperfectly burned corn and grass stalks having fallen across the
paths. To a reader in England this will seem a very small obstacle.
But he must fancy the grass stems as thick as his little finger, and
the corn-stalks like so many walkingsticks lying in one direction,
and so supporting each other that one has to lift his feet up as when
wading through deep high heather. The stems of grass showed the
causes of certain explosions as loud as pistols, which are heard when
the annual fires come roaring over the land. The heated air inside
expanding bursts the stalk with a loud report, and strews the
fragments on the ground.
A very great deal of native corn had been cultivated here, and we saw
buffaloes feeding in the deserted gardens, and some women, who ran
away very much faster than the beasts did.
On the 29th, seeing some people standing under a tree by a village,
we sat down, and sent Masego, one of our party, to communicate. The
headman, Matunda, came back with him, bearing a calabash with water
for us. He said that all the people had fled from the Ajawa, who had
only just desisted from their career of pillage on being paid five
persons as a fine for some offence for which they had commenced the
invasion. Matunda had plenty of grain to sell, and all the women
were soon at work grinding it into meal. We secured an abundant
supply, and four milk goats. The Manganja goat is of a very superior
breed to the general African animal, being short in the legs and
having a finely-shaped broad body. By promising the Makololo that,
when we no longer needed the milk, they should have the goats to
improve the breed of their own at home, they were induced to take the
greatest possible care of both goats and kids in driving and
pasturing.
After leaving Matunda, we came to the end of the highland valley;
and, before descending a steep declivity of a thousand feet towards
the part which may be called the heel of the Lake, we had the bold
mountains of Cape Maclear on our right, with the blue water at their
base, the hills of Tsenga in the distance in front, and Kirk's Range
on our left, stretching away northwards, and apparently becoming
lower. As we came down into a fine rich undulating valley, many
perennial streams running to the east from the hills on our left were
crossed, while all those behind us on the higher ground seemed to
unite in one named Lekue, which flowed into the Lake.
After a long day's march in the valley of the Lake, where the
temperature was very much higher than in that we had just left, we
entered the village of Katosa, which is situated on the bank of a
stream among gigantic timber trees, and found there a large party of
Ajawa - Waiau, they called themselves - all armed with muskets. We sat
down among them, and were soon called to the chiefs court, and
presented with an ample mess of porridge, buffalo meat, and beer.
Katosa was more frank than any Manganja chief we had met, and
complimented us by saying that "we must be his 'Bazimo' (good spirits
of his ancestors); for when he lived at Pamalombe, we lighted upon
him from above - men the like of whom he had never seen before, and
coming he knew not whence." He gave us one of his own large and
clean huts to sleep in; and we may take this opportunity of saying
that the impression we received, from our first journey on the hills
among the villages of Chisunse, of the excessive dirtiness of the
Manganja, was erroneous. This trait was confined to the cool
highlands. Here crowds of men and women were observed to perform
their ablutions daily in the stream that ran past their villages; and
this we have observed elsewhere to be a common custom with both
Manganja and Ajawa.
Before we started on the morning of the 1st September, Katosa sent an
enormous calabash of beer, containing at least three gallons, and
then came and wished us to "stop a day and eat with him." On
explaining to him the reasons for our haste, he said that he was in
the way by which travellers usually passed, he never stopped them in
their journeys, but would like to look at us for a day.
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