Another Cloth Was Of Course
Presented, And We Had The Pleasure Of Parting Good Friends Next Day.
Our guide, who belonged to the stockade near to which we had slept,
declined to risk himself further than his home.
While waiting to
hire another, Masiko attempted to purchase a goat, and had nearly
concluded the bargain, when the wife of the would-be seller came
forward, and said to her husband, "You appear as if you were
unmarried; selling a goat without consulting your wife; what an
insult to a woman! What sort of man are you?" Masiko urged the man,
saying, "Let us conclude the bargain, and never mind her;" but he
being better instructed, replied, "No, I have raised a host against
myself already," and refused.
We now pushed on to the east, so as to get down to the shores of the
Lake, and into the parts where we were known. The country was
beautiful, well wooded, and undulating, but the villages were all
deserted; and the flight of the people seemed to have been quite
recent, for the grain was standing in the corn-safes untouched. The
tobacco, though ripe, remained uncut in the gardens, and the whole
country was painfully quiet: the oppressive stillness quite unbroken
by the singing of birds, or the shrill calls of women watching their
corn.
On passing a beautiful village, called Bangwe, surrounded by shady
trees, and placed in a valley among mountains, we were admiring the
beauty of the situation, when some of the much dreaded Mazitu, with
their shields, ran out of the hamlet, from which we were a mile
distant.
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