One Part Of Pamozima
Is Perpendicular, And, When The River Is In Flood, Causes A Cloud Of
Vapour To Ascend, Which, In Our Journey To Lake Shirwa, We Saw At A
Distance Of At Least Eight Miles.
The entire descent from the Upper
to the Lower Shire is 1200 feet.
Only on one spot in all that
distance is the current moderate - namely, above Tedzane. The rest is
all rapid, and much of it being only fifty or eighty yards wide, and
rushing like a mill-race, it gives the impression of water-power,
sufficient to drive all the mills in Manchester, running to waste.
Pamofunda, or Pamozima, has a deep shady grove on its right bank.
When we were walking alone through its dark shade, we were startled
by a shocking smell like that of a dissecting-room; and on looking up
saw dead bodies in mats suspended from the branches of the trees, a
mode of burial somewhat similar to that which we subsequently saw
practised by the Parsees in their "towers of silence" at Poonah, near
Bombay. The name Pamozima means, "the departed spirits or gods" - a
fit name for a place over which, according to the popular belief, the
disembodied souls continually hover.
The rock lowest down in the series is dark reddish-grey syenite.
This seems to have been an upheaving agent, for the mica schists
above it are much disturbed. Dark trappean rocks full of hornblende
have in many places burst through these schists, and appear in
nodules on the surface. The highest rock seen is a fine sandstone of
closer grain than that at Tette, and quite metamorphosed where it
comes into contact with the igneous rocks below it. It sometimes
gives place to quartz and reddish clay schists, much baked by heat.
This is the usual geological condition on the right bank of the
Cataracts. On the other side we pass over masses of porphyritic
trap, in contact with the same mica schists, and these probably give
to the soil the great fertility we observed. The great body of the
mountains is syenite. So much mica is washed into the river, that on
looking attentively on the stream one sees myriads of particles
floating and glancing in the sun; and this, too, even at low water.
It was the 15th of August before the men returned from the ship,
accompanied by Mr. Rae and the steward of the "Pioneer." They
brought two oxen, one of which was instantly slaughtered to put
courage into all hearts, and some bottles of wine, a present from
Waller and Alington. We never carried wine before, but this was
precious as an expression of kindheartedness on the part of the
donors. If one attempted to carry either wine or spirits, as a
beverage, he would require a whole troop of followers for nothing
else. Our greatest luxury in travelling was tea or coffee. We never
once carried sugar enough to last a journey, but coffee is always
good, while the sugarless tea is only bearable, because of the
unbearable gnawing feeling of want and sinking which ensues if we
begin to travel in the mornings without something warm in the
stomach.
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