The Cuticle
Is Divided By A Knife, And The Edges Of The Incision Are Drawn Apart
Till The True Skin Appears.
By a repetition of this process, lines
of raised cicatrices are formed, which are thought to give beauty, no
matter how much pain the fashion gives.
It would not be worth while to advert for a moment to the routine of
travelling, or the little difficulties that beset every one who
attempts to penetrate into a new country, were it not to show the
great source of the power here possessed by slave-traders. We needed
help in carrying our goods, while our men were ill, though still able
to march. When we had settled with others for hire, we were often
told, that the dealers in men had taken possession of some, and had
taken them away altogether. Other things led us to believe that the
slave-traders carry matters with a high hand; and no wonder, for the
possession of gunpowder gives them almost absolute power. The mode
by which tribes armed with bows and arrows carry on warfare, or
defend themselves, is by ambuscade. They never come out in open
fight, but wait for the enemy ensconced behind trees, or in the long
grass of the country, and shoot at him unawares. Consequently, if
men come against them with firearms, when, as is usually the case,
the long grass is all burned off, the tribe attacked are as helpless
as a wooden ship, possessing only signal guns, would be before an
iron-clad steamer. The time of year selected for this kind of
warfare is nearly always that in which the grass is actually burnt
off, or is so dry as readily to take fire. The dry grass in Africa
looks more like ripe English wheat late in the autumn, than anything
else we can compare it to. Let us imagine an English village
standing in a field of this sort, bounded only by the horizon, and
enemies setting fire to a line of a mile or two, by running along
with bunches of burning straw in their hands, touching here and there
the inflammable material, - the wind blowing towards the doomed
village - the inhabitants with only one or two old muskets, but ten to
one no powder, - the long line of flames, leaping thirty feet into the
air with dense masses of black smoke - and pieces of charred grass
falling down in showers. Would not the stoutest English villager,
armed only with the bow and arrow against the enemy's musket, quail
at the idea of breaking through that wall of fire? When at a
distance, we once saw a scene like this, and had the charred grass,
literally as thick as flakes of black snow, falling around us, there
was no difficulty in understanding the secret of the slave-trader's
power.
On the 21st of September, we arrived at the village of the chief
Muasi, or Muazi; it is surrounded by a stockade, and embowered in
very tall euphorbia-trees; their height, thirty or forty feet, shows
that it has been inhabited for at least one generation. A visitation
of disease or death causes the headmen to change the site of their
villages, and plant new hedges; but, though Muazi has suffered from
the attacks of the Mazitu, he has evidently clung to his birthplace.
The village is situated about two miles south-west of a high hill
called Kasungu, which gives the name to a district extending to the
Loangwa of the Maravi. Several other detached granite hills have
been shot up on the plain, and many stockaded villages, all owing
allegiance to Muazi, are scattered over it.
On our arrival, the chief was sitting in the smooth shady place,
called Boalo, where all public business is transacted, with about two
hundred men and boys around him. We paid our guides with due
ostentation. Masiko, the tallest of our party, measured off the
fathom of cloth agreed upon, and made it appear as long as possible,
by facing round to the crowd, and cutting a few inches beyond what
his outstretched arms could reach, to show that there was no
deception. This was by way of advertisement. The people are
mightily gratified at having a tall fellow to measure the cloth for
them. It pleases them even better than cutting it by a tape-line -
though very few men of six feet high can measure off their own length
with their outstretched arms. Here, where Arab traders have been,
the cubit called mokono, or elbow, begins to take the place of the
fathom in use further south. The measure is taken from the point of
the bent elbow to the end of the middle finger.
We found, on visiting Muazi on the following day, that he was as
frank and straightforward as could reasonably be expected. He did
not wish us to go to the N.N.W., because he carries on a considerable
trade in ivory there. We were anxious to get off the slave route, to
people not visited before by traders; but Muazi naturally feared,
that if we went to what is said to be a well-watered country,
abounding in elephants, we might relieve him of the ivory which he
now obtains at a cheap rate, and sells to the slave-traders as they
pass Kasungu to the east; but at last he consented, warning us that
"great difficulty would be experienced in obtaining food - a district
had been depopulated by slave wars - and a night or two must be spent
in it; but he would give us good guides, who would go three days with
us, before turning, and then further progress must depend on
ourselves." Some of our men having been ill ever since we mounted
this highland plain, we remained two days with Muazi.
A herd of fine cattle showed that no tsetse existed in the district.
They had the Indian hump, and were very fat, and very tame.
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