This practice is common in the Zambesi, the Rovuma, and Lake Nyassa; and some of the Portuguese at Tette have adopted the native custom, and send canoes to a low island in the middle of the river for water.

Chitora's people also obtained their supply from shallow wells in the sandy bed of a small rivulet close to the village.

The habit may have arisen from observing the unhealthiness of the main stream at certain seasons.

During nearly nine months in the year, ordure is deposited around countless villages along the thousands of miles drained by the Zambesi.

When the heavy rains come down, and sweep the vast fetid accumulation into the torrents, the water is polluted with filth; and, but for the precaution mentioned, the natives would prove themselves as little fastidious as those in London who drink the abomination poured into the Thames by Reading and Oxford.