One of the best sights in Africa is a large grass fire. No fireworks in Britain can for a moment compare with this. Broad plains will keep burning for weeks. At the mission on the side of Mount Zomba, which overlooked a plain of several days’ journey, the sight of these fires was very impressive. The trees in the country suffer much. _Salutations._ The natives in saluting each other say “moni”—a corruption of the English “morning”. So general did this word become that we have heard people inclined to fancy that there must really be a native word “moni!” The native salutation is “mugonile?” “Have you slept well?” Sometimes friends will ask each other “Are you well?” “Is all well at your home?” A party arriving at a village observes the greatest formality. After getting an introduction to the chief of the village he begins to explain the object of his visit. The explanation is generally most tedious—it seems to go from the creation downwards—every step being carefully traced, whether in action or in motive, till the moment of the arrival! The natives have the greatest respect for the older people. The title of father is given to such. If we ask anything of a younger man about 30 years of age he will say “I am only a child; ask the old men of gray hairs”. All the English are saluted as father; even a white child of a few months is saluted in the words, “moni, moni, atati!” (morning, morning, father). _The Inferior Position of Women._ The women hold an inferior position. They are viewed as beasts of burden, which do all the harder work. When a woman meets any men on the path the etiquette is for her to go off the path, to kneel (tindiwala), and clap her hands to the “lords of creation” as they pass. Even if a female possess male slaves of her own she observes this custom when she meets them on the public highway. A woman always kneels when she has occasion to talk to a man. The custom very rapidly disappeared in the region of the missionaries. When we saw a woman go out of her way, carrying perhaps half a hundred-weight on her head, with the intention of kneeling down, and reflecting, as she must, that with her load she might have difficulty in getting up, we have often playfully shouted out, “You are losing your way; this is the path,” and she took it for granted that she might dispense with the clumsy ceremony. CHAPTER II. NATIVE ARTS AND LITERATURE. H.—TRADES AND MANUFACTURES. The chief method of obtaining a livelihood is by cultivating the soil. Near a lake abounding with fishes, the cultivation of the soil, though not abandoned, may take a secondary place. In districts abounding with game, the men as a rule hand over all agricultural work to their wives and slaves. Fishing and hunting are looked on as being more dignified occupations than hoeing. _Work in Iron._