When the chief has decided on the journey he gives his man a thread (lupota), which is tied round some part of his person, as a token that the god goes along with the expedition. He may give an oil vessel (chisasi) for a similar purpose. The man now takes the necessary supply of food (inga) and fire-arms, bids his wives good-bye, and sets forth on his journey. 15.—CEREMONIES OBSERVED BY THE WIVES OF TRAVELLERS. The village chief may immediately call the wives that are left behind, and advise each one to behave with discretion during her husband’s absence, as otherwise she may mar his domestic peace, or even cause his death (82). These wives must observe certain customs during their husbands’ absence. If at any time one of them have a dream she must present a private offering. (In describing the worship connected with a journey, we have been assuming all along that the expedition is of interest to the village chief. This is nearly always the case, for one thing the chief wishes to pray that his villager may be safely restored to him). Should a man undertake a journey that is entirely private, then he may perform the offering himself, or ask his wife to do it for him. They would put down the flour, and watch the formation of the cone as the chief does. All the particulars connected with the success and failure of omens are the same, and if they are relatives of the chief the god invoked is the same. If they are not related to the chief they may pray not to the god of the village, but to the god of their own family. While a woman’s husband is absent she goes without anointing her head or washing her face. She must not bathe, she scarcely washes her arms, she must not cut her hair. Her oil vessel (chisasi) is kept full of oil till his return, and may be hung up in the house or kept by the side of her bed. This neglect commences, according to some, as soon as her husband has gone. Others allow the moon “to die”; they wait for the new moon before they begin this species of mourning (kuwindika). It continues till the husband return. 16.—KICKING AGAINST THE STUMPS. The expedition has started at last—surely all detention from bad omens is at an end. By no means. In a few days the leader of the expedition may appear at the village with all his men. He has hurt his toe on the stump of a tree (chisichi)! The natives, in preparing their ground for cultivation, cut down nearly all the trees. They do not cut close to the earth as an English forester would do. They find it much easier to cut the tree at a thinner part, and leave a stump. Such stumps are all over the cultivated land, and are often found on the footpaths. If a superstitious man strike his foot on one of these at the beginning of an important journey, he considers it to be ominous of evil.