h of September a thief came to the sleeping-place
of our men and stole a leg of a goat. On complaining to the deputy
headman, he said that the thief had fled, but would be caught. He
suggested a fine, and offered a fowl and her eggs; but wishing that the
thief alone should be punished, it was advised that _he_ should be found
and fined. The Makololo thought it best to take the fowl as a means of
making the punishment certain. After settling this matter on the last
day of September, we commenced our return journey. We had just the same
time to go back to the ship, that we had spent in coming to this point,
and there is not much to interest one in marching over the same ground a
second time.

While on our journey north-west, a cheery old woman, who had once been
beautiful, but whose white hair now contrasted strongly with her dark
complexion, was working briskly in her garden as we passed. She seemed
to enjoy a hale, hearty old age. She saluted us with what elsewhere
would be called a good address; and, evidently conscious that she
deserved the epithet, "dark but comely," answered each of us with a frank
"Yes, my child." Another motherly-looking woman, sitting by a well,
began the conversation by "You are going to visit Muazi, and you have
come from afar, have you not?" But in general women never speak to
strangers unless spoken to, so anything said by them attracts attention.
Muazi once presented us with a basket of corn. On hinting that we had no
wife to grind our corn, his buxom spouse struck in with roguish glee, and
said, "I will grind it for you; and leave Muazi, to accompany and cook
for you in the land of the setting sun." As a rule the women are modest
and retiring in their demeanour, and, without being oppressed with toil,
show a great deal of industry. The crops need about eight months'
attention. Then when the harvest is home, much labour is required to
convert it into food as porridge, or beer. The corn is pounded in a
large wooden mortar, like the ancient Egyptian one, with a pestle six
feet long and about four inches thick. The pounding is performed by two
or even three women at one mortar. Each, before delivering a blow with
her pestle, gives an upward jerk of the body, so as to put strength into
the stroke, and they keep exact time, so that two pestles are never in
the mortar at the same moment. The measured thud, thud, thud, and the
women standing at their vigorous work, are associations