Thinking
It Was A Pistol They Started Up, And Said, "Put That In Again." The
Younger Men Then Became Boisterous, And Demanded A Goat.
That could
not be spared, as they were the sole provisions.
When they insisted,
they were asked how many of the party they had killed, that they thus
began to divide the spoil; this evidently made them ashamed. The
elders were more reasonable; they dreaded treachery, and were as much
afraid of Dr. Livingstone and his party as his men were of them; for
on leaving they sped away up the hills like frightened deer. One of
them, and probably the leader, was married, as seen by portions of
his hair sewn into a ring; all were observed by their teeth to be
people of the country, who had been incorporated into the Zulu tribe.
The way still led over a succession of steep ridges with ravines of
from 500 to 1000 feet in depth; some of the sides had to be scaled on
hands and knees, and no sooner was the top reached than the descent
began again. Each ravine had a running stream; and the whole
country, though so very rugged, had all been cultivated, and densely
peopled. Many banana-trees, uncared for patches of corn, and Congo-
bean bushes attested former cultivation. The population had all been
swept away; ruined villages, broken utensils, and human skeletons,
met with at every turn, told a sad tale. So numerous were the slain,
that it was thought the inhabitants had been slaughtered in
consequence of having made raids on the Zulus for cattle.
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