The Tambuka, or Tumbuka, according to their own account, ‘came from the north,’ where they were one tribe, ruled over by one chief, named Chikulamayembe. This was in some indefinite time long ago, before the Angoni had come. When they separated, they were living on the Rukuru river, where it flows through a natural arch of rock. Here ‘they worshipped a hill called Chikangombe; there is there a hot spring which they worshipped also.’ They split up and went in different directions, living much as the Mang’anja of the Shiré Highlands did before they were displaced by invaders. ‘They lived separately. One said, “I am chief,” and another said so also. They did not build big villages, but small ones of a few huts, containing their slaves, wives, and others.’ When they elected a chief, they anointed him with lion’s fat. ‘Chikulamayembe’ seems to mean ‘giver of hoes,’ and this chief was so called ‘because they saw his kindness and bounty to the poor. When a person had no hoe, he came to the chief and asked one, and he got it.’ Hoes are used as money by some tribes—as by those of the Upper Congo, and formerly by the Baronga of Delagoa Bay. Chikulamayembe’s people moved on from the Rukuru to the hill Zabula, which appears to have been regarded with superstitious awe. ‘The old people of the tribe thought this hill could give rain.’ Here another separation took place, and, soon after, they were attacked by the Angoni. ‘The Tambuka had many cattle and goats,’ says the native account, ‘but the Ngoni hearing that they had cattle came and fought with them. The Ngoni killed the Tambuka, took their cattle, and sent them to their chief Zwangendaba. Thus the Tambuka failed to withstand the Ngoni, through their living apart and being scattered.’ For a time the invaders carried all before them; then they met with a temporary check, being defeated by three Tambuka chiefs in succession. The last of these, Chigamuka, inflicted such a crushing blow on them that, ‘to-day, if a Tambuka reminds a Ngoni of Chigamuka, the latter will strike him, because the Ngoni died and were beaten there.’