The Drums, Beating All Night
In One Village Near Which We Slept, Showed That Some Person In It
Had Finished His Course.
On the occasion of the death of a chief,
a trader is liable to be robbed, for the people consider themselves
not amenable to law until a new one is elected.
We continued
a very winding course, in order to avoid the chief Katolosa,
who is said to levy large sums upon those who fall into his hands.
One of our guides was a fine, tall young man, the very image of Ben Habib
the Arab. They were carrying dried buffalo's meat to the market at Tete
as a private speculation.
A great many of the Banyai are of a light coffee-and-milk color,
and, indeed, this color is considered handsome throughout the whole country,
a fair complexion being as much a test of beauty with them as with us.
As they draw out their hair into small cords a foot in length,
and entwine the inner bark of a certain tree round each separate cord,
and dye this substance of a reddish color, many of them put me
in mind of the ancient Egyptians. The great mass of dressed hair
which they possess reaches to the shoulders, but when they intend to travel
they draw it up to a bunch, and tie it on the top of the head.
They are cleanly in their habits.
As we did not come near human habitations, and could only take short stages
on account of the illness of one of my men, I had an opportunity of observing
the expedients my party resorted to in order to supply their wants.
Large white edible mushrooms are found on the ant-hills, and are very good.
The mokuri, a tuber which abounds in the Mopane country,
they discovered by percussing the ground with stones; and another tuber,
about the size of a turnip, called "bonga", is found in the same situations.
It does not determine to the joints like the mokuri, and in winter
has a sensible amount of salt in it.
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