{6} than to give credence to the
theory that untaught savage man subsisted in a state which would
prove fatal to all his descendants, and that in such helpless state
he made many inventions which most of his progeny retained, but never
improved upon during some thirty centuries.
We crossed in canoes the arm of the Lake, which joins Chia to Nyassa,
and spent the night on its northern bank. The whole country adjacent
to the Lake, from this point up to Kota-kota Bay, is densely peopled
by thousands who have fled from the forays of the Mazitu in hopes of
protection from the Arabs who live there. In three running rivulets
we saw the Shuare palm, and an oil palm which is much inferior to
that on the West Coast. Though somewhat similar in appearance, the
fruit is not much larger than hazel-nuts, and the people do not use
them, on account of the small quantity of oil which they afford.
The idea of using oil for light never seems to have entered the
African mind. Here a bundle of split and dried bamboo, tied together
with creeping plants, as thick as a man's body, and about twenty feet
in length, is employed in the canoes as a torch to attract the fish
at night.
