At Defwe's Village, Near Where The Ship Lay On Her First
Ascent, We Found Two Mfumos Or Headmen, The Son And Son-In-Law Of The
Former Chief.
A sister's son has much more chance of succeeding to a
chieftainship than the chief's own offspring, it being unquestionable
that the sister's child has the family blood.
The men are all marked
across the nose and up the middle of the forehead with short
horizontal bars or cicatrices; and a single brass earring of two or
three inches diameter, like the ancient Egyptian, is worn by the men.
Some wear the hair long like the ancient Assyrians and Egyptians, and
a few have eyes with the downward and inward slant of the Chinese.
After fording the rapid Luia, we left our former path on the banks of
the Zambesi, and struck off in a N.W. direction behind one of the
hill ranges, the eastern end of which is called Mongwa, the name of
an acacia, having a peculiarly strong fetor, found on it. Our route
wound up a valley along a small mountain-stream which was nearly dry,
and then crossed the rocky spurs of some of the lofty hills. The
country was all very dry at the time, and no water was found except
in an occasional spring and a few wells dug in the beds of
watercourses. The people were poor, and always anxious to convince
travellers of the fact. The men, unlike those on the plains, spend a
good deal of their time in hunting; this may be because they have but
little ground on the hill-sides suitable for gardens, and but little
certainty of reaping what may be sown in the valleys. No women came
forward in the hamlet, east of Chiperiziwa, where we halted for the
night. Two shots had been fired at guinea-fowl a little way off in
the valley; the women fled into the woods, and the men came to know
if war was meant, and a few of the old folks only returned after
hearing that we were for peace. The headman, Kambira, apologized for
not having a present ready, and afterwards brought us some meal, a
roasted coney (Hyrax capensis), and a pot of beer; he wished to be
thought poor. The beer had come to him from a distance; he had none
of his own. Like the Manganja, these people salute by clapping their
hands. When a man comes to a place where others are seated, before
sitting down he claps his hands to each in succession, and they do
the same to him. If he has anything to tell, both speaker and hearer
clap their hands at the close of every paragraph, and then again
vigorously at the end of the speech. The guide, whom the headman
gave us, thus saluted each of his comrades before he started off with
us. There is so little difference in the language, that all the
tribes of this region are virtually of one family.
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