In addition to the above a few tons of Mammoth ivory are received from time to time from the Arctic regions and Siberia, and although of unknown antiquity, some tusks are equal in every respect to ivory which is obtained in the present day from elephants newly killed; this, no doubt, is owing to the preservative effects of the ice in which the animals have been imbedded for many thousands of years.  In the year 1799 the entire carcase of a mammoth was taken from the ice, and the skeleton and portions of the skin, still covered with reddish hair, are preserved in the Museum of St. Petersburg:  it is said that portions of the flesh were eaten by the men who dug it out of the ice.]

24th December, 1870.—­Between twenty-five and thirty slaves have died in the present epidemic, and many Manyuema; two yesterday at Kandawara.  The feet swell, then the hands and face, and in a day or two they drop dead; it came from the East, and is very fatal, for few escape who take it.

A woman was accused of stealing maize, and the chief here sent all his people yesterday, plundered all she had in her house and garden, and brought her husband bound in thongs till he shall pay a goat:  she is said to be innocent.

Monangoi does this by fear of the traders here; and, as the people tell him, as soon as they are gone the vengeance he is earning by injustice on all sides will be taken:  I told the chief that his head would be cut off as soon as the traders leave, and so it will be; and Kasessa’s also.

Three men went from Katomba to Kasongo’s to buy Viramba, and a man was speared belonging to Kasongo, these three then fired into a mass of men who collected, one killed two, another three, and so on; so now that place is shut up from traders, and all this country will be closed as soon as the Manyuema learn that guns are limited in their power of killing, and especially in the hands of slaves, who cannot shoot, but only make a noise.  These Suaheli are the most cruel and bloodthirsty missionaries in existence, and withal so impure in talk and acts, spreading disease everywhere.  The Lord sees it.

28th December, 1870.—­Moenembegg, the most intelligent of the two sons of Moenekuss, in power, told us that a man was killed and eaten a few miles from this yesterday:  hunger was the reason assigned.  On speaking of tainted meat, he said that the Manyuema put meat in water for two days to make it putrid and smell high.  The love of high meat is the only reason I know for their cannibalism, but the practice is now hidden on account of the disgust that the traders expressed against open man-eating when they first arrived.

Lightning was very near us last night.  The Manyuema say that when it is so loud fishes of large size fall with it, an opinion shared by the Arabs, but the large fish is really the Clarias Capensis of Smith, and it is often seen migrating in single file along the wet grass for miles:  it is probably this that the Manyuema think falls from the lightning.