said to be good eating. The Makololo having set fire to the grass where
they were cutting wood, a solitary buffalo rushed out of the
conflagration, and made a furious charge at an active young fellow named
Mantlanyane. Never did his fleet limbs serve him better than during the
few seconds of his fearful flight before the maddened animal. When he
reached the bank, and sprang into the river, the infuriated beast was
scarcely six feet behind him. Towards evening, after the day's labour in
wood-cutting was over, some of the men went fishing. They followed the
common African custom of agitating the water, by giving it a few sharp
strokes with the top of the fishing-rod, immediately after throwing in
the line, to attract the attention of the fish to the bait. Having
caught nothing, the reason assigned was the same as would have been given
in England under like circumstances, namely, that "the wind made the fish
cold, and they would not bite." Many gardens of maize, pumpkins, and
tobacco, fringed the marshy banks as we went on. They belong to natives
of the hills, who come down in the dry season, and raise a crop on parts
at other times flooded. While the crops are growing, large quantities of
fish are caught, chiefly _Clarias capensis_, and _Mugil Africanus_; they
are dried for sale or future consumption.

As we ascended, we passed a deep stream about thirty yards wide, flowing
in from a body of open water several miles broad. Numbers of men were
busy at different parts of it, filling their canoes with the lotus root,
called _Nyika_, which, when boiled or roasted, resembles our chestnuts,
and is extensively used in Africa as food. Out of this lagoon, and by
this stream, the chief part of the duckweed of the Shire flows. The
lagoon itself is called Nyanja ea Motope (Lake of Mud). It is also named
Nyanja Pangono (Little Lake), while the elephant marsh goes by the name
of Nyanja Mukulu (Great Lake). It is evident from the shore line still
to be observed on the adjacent hills, that in ancient times these were