The ANGONI were originally a Zulu clan who came from the south, under Zwangendaba, about 1825, and incorporated with themselves large numbers of the tribes whom they conquered by the way, so that there are now few, if any, of unmixed descent remaining. The ‘southern Angoni’—formerly known as ‘Chekusi’s people’—are mostly Anyanja; but there were, in 1894, a few head-men and others, besides Chekusi’s own family, who spoke Zulu, and some of the elders wore the head-ring, but of a different pattern from the Zulu _isigcoco_ (which is a smooth, round ring), being more like a crown done in basket-work. The northern Angoni (Mombera’s people) all speak Zulu, with considerable dialectic modifications, such as the gradual elimination of the clicks, and the substitution of _r_ for _l_. But their speech is quite intelligible to Zulus from the south. As already stated, there is a great variety of types. The young warriors introduced to me under the name of ‘Mandala’s boys’ (Mandala was the brother of Chekusi or Chatantumba, at that time chief of the southern Angoni) were big, swaggering, long-limbed fellows, somewhat vacant of face, and, I think, somewhat lighter in colour than the sturdy little men who went to work on the Blantyre plantations. But whether the difference between them was a matter of race, or merely of an easier life and a diet of beef, I would not venture to say; for these warriors must have been, in part at least, recruited from the sons of the small, dark, hard-working Anyanja, who lived on scanty rations of maize and millet porridge in the Upper Shiré villages. These were always liable to have their growing lads sent for ‘_ku mdzi_’—_i.e._ to the chief’s kraal in the hills—where they had to herd Chekusi’s cattle, and, later on, entered what we may call the ‘Life Guards.’ The history of the Angoni and their migrations will be considered in a later chapter.