The tsetse flies, which were very numerous at the bottom, came up the ascent with us, but as we increased our altitude by another thousand feet they gradually dropped off and left us:  only one remained in the evening, and he seemed out of spirits.  Near sunset we encamped by water on the cool height, and made our shelters with boughs of leafy trees; mine was rendered perfect by Dr. Stenhouse’s invaluable patent cloth, which is very superior to mackintosh:  indeed the india-rubber cloth is not to be named in the same day with it.

28th December, 1866.—­Three men, going to hunt bees, came to us as we were starting and assured us that Moerwa’s was near.  The first party had told us the same thing, and so often have we gone long distances as “pafupi” (near), when in reality they were “patari” (far), that we begin to think pafupi means “I wish you to go there,” and patari the reverse.  In this case near meant an hour and three-quarters from our sleeping-place to Moerwa’s!

When we look back from the height to which we have ascended we see a great plain clothed with dark green forest except at the line of yellowish grass, where probably the Loangwa flows.  On the east and south-east this plain is bounded at the extreme range of our vision by a wall of dim blue mountains forty or fifty miles off.  The Loangwa is said to rise in the Chibale country due north of this Malambwe (in which district Moerwa’s village is situated), and to flow S.E., then round to where we found it.

Moerwa came to visit me in my hut, a rather stupid man, though he has a well-shaped and well-developed forehead, and tried the usual little arts of getting us to buy all we need here though the prices are exorbitant.  “No people in front, great hunger there.”  “We must buy food here and carry it to support us.”  On asking the names of the next headman he would not inform me, till I told him to try and speak like a man; he then told us that the first Lobemba chief was Motuna, and the next Chafunga.  We have nothing, as we saw no animals in our way hither, and hunger is ill to bear.  By giving Moerwa a good large cloth he was induced to cook a mess of maere or millet and elephant’s stomach; it was so good to get a full meal that I could have given him another cloth, and the more so as it was accompanied by a message that he would cook more next day and in larger quantity.  On inquiring next evening he said “the man had told lies,” he had cooked nothing more:  he was prone to lie himself, and was a rather bad specimen of a chief.

The Babisa have round bullet heads, snub noses, often high cheek-bones, an upward slant of the eyes, and look as if they had a lot of Bushman blood in them, and a good many would pass for Bushmen or Hottentots.  Both Babisa and Waiyau may have a mixture of the race, which would account for their roving habits.  The women have the fashion of exposing the upper part of the buttocks by letting a very stiff cloth fall down behind.  Their teeth are filed to points, they wear no lip-ring, and the hair is parted so as to lie in a net at the back part of the head.  The mode of salutation among the men is to lie down nearly on the back, clapping the hands, and making a rather inelegant half-kissing sound with the lips.