We had no grain; and three remained behind spending four hours at what we did in an hour and a quarter.
Our guide became tired and turned, not before securing another; but he would not go over the Loangwa; no one likes to go out of his own country: he would go westwards to Maranda's, and nowhere else.

A "set-in" rain came on after dark, and we went on through slush, the trees sending down heavier drops than the showers as we neared the Loangwa; we forded several deep gullies, all flowing north or north-west into it.

The paths were running with water, and when we emerged from the large Mopane Forest, we came on the plain of excessively adhesive mud, on which Maranda's stronghold stands on the left bank of Loangwa, here a good-sized river.

The people were all afraid of us, and we were mortified to find that food is scarce.

The Mazitu have been here three times, and the fear they have inspired, though they were successfully repelled, has prevented agricultural operations from being carried on.
_Mem._--A flake of reed is often used in surgical operations among the natives, as being sharper than their knives.
FOOTNOTES: [34] A cloth means two yards of unbleached calico.
[35] Chuma remembers part of the words of her song to be as follows:-- Kowe! kowe! n'andambwi, M'vula leru, korole ko okwe, Waie, ona, kordi, mvula! He cannot translate it as it is pure Manganja, but with the exception of the first line--which relates to a little song-bird with a beautiful note, it is a mere reiteration "rain will surely come to-day."-- ED..