They Asked To Be Led To "Nyanja
Mukulu," Or Great Lake, Meaning, By This, Lake Shirwa; And The Guide
Took
Them round a terribly rough piece of mountainous country,
gradually edging away towards a long marsh, which from the numbers
Of
those animals we had seen there we had called the Elephant Marsh, but
which was really the place known to him by the name "Nyanja Mukulu,"
or Great Lake. Nyanja or Nyanza means, generally, a marsh, lake,
river, or even a mere rivulet.
The party pushed on at last without guides, or only with crazy ones;
for, oddly enough, they were often under great obligations to the
madmen of the different villages: one of these honoured them, as
they slept in the open air, by dancing and singing at their feet the
whole night. These poor fellows sympathized with the explorers,
probably in the belief that they belonged to their own class; and,
uninfluenced by the general opinion of their countrymen, they really
pitied, and took kindly to the strangers, and often guided them
faithfully from place to place, when no sane man could be hired for
love or money.
The bearing of the Manganja at this time was very independent; a
striking contrast to the cringing attitude they afterwards assumed,
when the cruel scourge of slave-hunting passed over their country.
Signals were given from the different villages by means of drums, and
notes of defiance and intimidation were sounded in the travellers'
ears by day; and occasionally they were kept awake the whole night,
in expectation of an instant attack.
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