13Th.  The head man of these parts is named Nyampungo.  I sent the last fragment of cloth we had, with a request that we should be furnished with a guide to the next chief.  After a long conference with his council, the cloth was returned with a promise of compliance, and a request for some beads only.  This man is supposed to possess the charm for rain, and other tribes send to him to beg it.  This shows that what we inferred before was correct, that less rain falls in this country than in Londa.  Nyampungo behaved in quite a gentlemanly manner, presented me with some rice, and told my people to go among all the villages and beg for themselves.  An old man, father-in-law of the chief, told me that he had seen books before, but never knew what they meant.  They pray to departed chiefs and relatives, but the idea of praying to God seemed new, and they heard it with reverence.  As this was an intelligent old man, I asked him about the silver, but he was as ignorant of it as the rest, and said, “We never dug silver, but we have washed for gold in the sands of the rivers Mazoe and Luia, which unite in the Luenya.”  I think that this is quite conclusive on the question of no silver having been dug by the natives of this district.  Nyampungo is afflicted with a kind of disease called Sesenda, which I imagine to be a species of leprosy common in this quarter, though they are a cleanly people.  They never had cattle.  The chief’s father had always lived in their present position, and, when I asked him why he did not possess these useful animals, he said, “Who would give us the medicine to enable us to keep them?” I found out the reason afterward in the prevalence of tsetse, but of this he was ignorant, having supposed that he could not keep cattle because he had no medicine.

Chapter 30.

An Elephant-hunt—­Offering and Prayers to the Barimo for Success—­ Native Mode of Expression—­Working of Game-laws—­A Feast—­Laughing Hyaenas—­Numerous Insects—­Curious Notes of Birds of Song—­ Caterpillars—­Butterflies—­Silica—­The Fruit Makoronga and Elephants —­Rhinoceros Adventure—­Korwe Bird—­Its Nest—­A real Confinement—­ Honey and Beeswax—­Superstitious Reverence for the Lion—­Slow Traveling—­Grapes—­The Ue—­Monina’s Village—­Native Names—­Government of the Banyai—­Electing a Chief—­Youths instructed in “Bonyai”—­Suspected of Falsehood—­War-dance—­Insanity and Disappearance of Monahin—­Fruitless Search—­Monina’s Sympathy—­The Sand-river Tangwe—­The Ordeal Muavi:  its Victims—­An unreasonable Man—­“Woman’s Rights”—­Presents—­Temperance—­A winding Course to shun Villages—­ Banyai Complexion and Hair—­Mushrooms—­The Tubers, Mokuri—­The Tree Shekabakadzi—­Face of the Country—­Pot-holes—­Pursued by a Party of Natives—­Unpleasant Threat—­Aroused by a Company of Soldiers—­A civilized Breakfast—­Arrival at Tete.