A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864Livingstone, David
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A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864
Livingstone, David
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, Central -- Discovery and exploration
The heathen, who have not
become aware of the greed and hate which too often characterize the
advancing tide of emigration, listen with most attention to the message
of Divine love when delivered by men who evidently possess the same human
sympathies with themselves. A chief is rather envied his good fortune in
first securing foreigners in his town. Jealousy of strangers belongs
more to the Arab than to the African character; and if the women are let
alone by the traveller, no danger need be apprehended from any save the
slave-trading tribes, and not often even from them.
We passed through a fertile country, covered with open forest,
accompanied by the friendly Bawe. They are very hospitable; many of them
were named, among themselves, "the Baenda pezi," or "Go-nakeds," their
only clothing being a coat of red ochre. Occasionally stopping at their
villages we were duly lullilooed, and regaled with sweet new-made beer,
which, being yet unfermented, was not intoxicating. It is in this state
called Liting or Makonde. Some of the men carry large shields of buffalo-
hide, and all are well supplied with heavy spears. The vicinity of the
villages is usually cleared and cultivated in large patches; but nowhere
can the country be said to be stocked with people. At every village
stands were erected, and piles of the native corn, still unthrashed,
placed upon them; some had been beaten out, put into oblong parcels made
of grass, and stacked in wooden frames.
We crossed several rivulets in our course, as the Mandora, the Lofia, the
Manzaia (with brackish water), the Rimbe, the Chibue, the Chezia, the
Chilola (containing fragments of coal), which did little more than mark
our progress. The island and rapid of Nakansalo, of which we had
formerly heard, were of no importance, the rapid being but half a mile
long, and only on one side of the island. The island Kaluzi marks one of
the numerous places where astronomical observations were made; Mozia, a
station where a volunteer poet left us; the island Mochenya, and Mpande
island, at the mouth of the Zungwe rivulet, where we left the Zambesi.
When favoured with the hospitality and company of the "Go-nakeds," we
tried to discover if nudity were the badge of a particular order among
the Bawe, but they could only refer to custom. Some among them had
always liked it for no reason in particular: shame seemed to lie dormant,
and the sense could not be aroused by our laughing and joking them on
their appearance. They evidently felt no less decent than we did with
our clothes on; but, whatever may be said in favour of nude statues, it
struck us that man, in a state of nature, is a most ungainly animal.
Could we see a number of the degraded of our own lower classes in like
guise, it is probable that, without the black colour which acts somehow
as a dress, they would look worse still.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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