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
We now saw many good-looking young men and women. The dresses of the
ladies are identical with those of Nubian women in Upper Egypt. To a
belt on the waist a great number of strings are attached to hang all
round the person. These fringes are about six or eight inches long. The
matrons wear in addition a skin cut like the tails of the coatee formerly
worn by our dragoons. The younger girls wear the waist-belt exhibited in
the woodcut, ornamented with shells, and have the fringes only in front.
Marauding parties of Batoka, calling themselves Makololo, have for some
time had a wholesome dread of Sinamane's "long spears." Before going to
Tette our Batoka friend, Masakasa, was one of a party that came to steal
some of the young women; but Sinamane, to their utter astonishment,
attacked them so furiously that the survivors barely escaped with their
lives. Masakasa had to flee so fast that he threw away his shield, his
spear, and his clothes, and returned home a wiser and a sadder man.
Sinamane's people cultivate large quantities of tobacco, which they
manufacture into balls for the Makololo market. Twenty balls, weighing
about three-quarters of a pound each, are sold for a hoe. The tobacco is
planted on low moist spots on the banks of the Zambesi; and was in flower
at the time we were there, in October. Sinamane's people appear to have
abundance of food, and are all in good condition. He could sell us only
two of his canoes; but lent us three more to carry us as far as Moemba's,
where he thought others might be purchased. They were manned by his own
canoe-men, who were to bring them back. The river is about 250 yards
wide, and flows serenely between high banks towards the North-east. Below
Sinamane's the banks are often worn down fifty feet, and composed of
shingle and gravel of igneous rocks, sometimes set in a ferruginous
matrix. The bottom is all gravel and shingle, how formed we cannot
imagine, unless in pot-holes in the deep fissure above. The bottom above
the Falls, save a few rocks close by them, is generally sandy or of soft
tufa. Every damp spot is covered with maize, pumpkins, water-melons,
tobacco, and hemp. There is a pretty numerous Batoka population on both
sides of the river. As we sailed slowly down, the people saluted us from
the banks, by clapping their hands. A headman even hailed us, and
brought a generous present of corn and pumpkins.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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