Referring back to the picture of the Mnguru already given, we find that he wears his hair fairly long and divided into strands, with beads tied to the ends of them. Now and again we see a Yao woman (but I think the fashion is not confined to any particular tribe; it is not very extensively followed, comparative wealth, leisure, and one or more skilled assistants being necessary) with what looks like a wig of red beads. This is made by stringing on every few hairs the beads known as _chitalaka_, which are like red coral, and white inside. How long it takes to complete the dressing of a head in this way, I have no notion; but African women possess an almost unlimited capacity for passive endurance. A pretty variant of this is sometimes seen in little girls who have a few loops of chitalaka strung to the hair on the top of the head, adding a touch of bright colour and no suggestion of discomfort. Some of the Atonga shave the hair all round, leaving a patch on the top of the scalp, which they plait into small tails. [Illustration: 2. WOMEN MAKING PORRIDGE IN AN (IMPORTED) IRON POT The one on the left takes out a handful and moulds it into shape to add to the pile on the basket (p. 136) 1. EXCEPTIONAL COIFFURE OF MNGONI] [Illustration: THE PROGRESS OF CIVILIZATION!] Dress, which is a comparatively simple matter, apart from the singlets, shirts, and other garments of European introduction, may be reserved for another chapter which deals with native life from the cradle to the grave. CHAPTER III RELIGION AND MAGIC—I Ancestor-worship. Offerings. Mulungu. Mpambe. Chitowe. Evil spirits. Spirits of the dead. Dreams. Morality. In 1894 swarms of locusts, for the first time in thirty years, came down on the Shiré Highlands and consumed all the crops in the native gardens—even attacking at last the white men’s coffee-trees. Fresh broods kept succeeding each other throughout the dry season, and as the time for the rains drew near, the villagers became anxious. What was the good of sowing their maize if the _dzombe_ were there, ready to eat up the young shoots as soon as they appeared above ground? Great discussions went on among the elders in the _bwalo_ as to the source of this visitation—if one could only conjecture its reason, it might be possible to find a remedy. Chesinka, an old head-man on Mlanje mountain, had a dream, one night in October, which, at any rate, suggested a solution. His old friend, Chipoka, dead some four years, appeared to him, and told him that it was he himself who had sent the locusts, as a hint to his people that they were not treating him properly; it was a long time since they had given him any beer, and he was very thirsty in the spirit-world. So Chesinka sent word to Chipoka’s son, who at once took steps for repairing the omission.