what he could in trying to indoctrinate him: when I gave
him a present he immediately proposed to _sell_ a goat! We get on
pretty well however.

Zomha is in a range of hills to our west, called Zala nyama. The
Portuguese, in going to Casembe, went still further west than this.

Passing on we came to a smithy, and watched the founder at work
drawing off slag from the bottom of his furnace. He broke through the
hardened slag by striking it with an iron instrument inserted in the
end of a pole, when the material flowed out of the small hole left for
the purpose in the bottom of the furnace. The ore (probably the black
oxide) was like sand, and was put in at the top of the furnace, mixed
with charcoal. Only one bellows was at work, formed out of a goatskin,
and the blast was very poor. Many of these furnaces, or their remains,
are met with on knolls; those at work have a peculiarly tall hut built
over them.

On the eastern edge of a valley lying north and south, with the
Diampwe stream flowing along it, and the Dzala nyama range on the
western side, are two villages screened by fine specimens of the
_Ficus Indica_. One of these is owned by the headman Theresa, and
there we spent the night. We made very short marches, for the sun is
very powerful, and the soil baked hard, is sore on the feet: no want
of water, however, is felt, for we come to supplies every mile or two.

The people look very poor, having few or no beads; the ornaments being
lines and cuttings on the skin. They trust more to buaze than cotton.
I noticed but two cotton patches. The women are decidedly plain; but
monopolize all the buaze cloth. Theresa was excessively liberal, and
having informed us that Zomba lived some distance up the range and was
not the principal man in these parts, we, to avoid climbing the hills,
turned away to the north, in the direction of the paramount chief,
Chisumpi, whom we found to be only traditionally great.

_20th October, 1866._--In passing along we came to a village embowered
in fine trees; the headman is Kaveta, a really fine specimen of the
Kanthunda, tall, well-made, with a fine forehead and Assyrian nose. He
proposed to us to remain over night with him, and I unluckily
declined.

Convoying us out a mile, we parted with this gentleman, and then came
to a smith's village, where the same invitation was given and refused.
A sort of infatuation drove us on, and after a long hot march we found
the great Chisumpi, the fa