The sods in places not before hoed are separated from the soil beneath and collected into flattened heaps, the grass undermost; when dried, fire is applied and slow combustion goes on, most of the products of the burning being retained in the ground, much of the soil is incinerated.

The final preparation is effected by the men digging up the subsoil round the mound, passing each hoeful into the left hand, where it pulverizes, and is then thrown on to the heap.
It is thus virgin soil on the top of the ashes and burned ground of the original heap, very clear of weeds.

At present many mounds have beans and maize about four inches high.

Holes, a foot in diameter and a few inches deep, are made irregularly over the surface of the mound, and about eight or ten grains put into each: these are watered by hand and calabash, and kept growing till the rains set in, when a very early crop is secured.
_13th October, 1866._--After leaving Phunze, we crossed the Levinge, a rivulet which flows northwards, and then into Lake Nyassa; the lines of gentle undulation tend in that direction.

Some hills appear on the plains, but after the mountains which we have left behind they are mere mounds.