eems to have extended 2500 miles from north
to south, with an average breadth, from east to west, of 600 or 700
miles.

The true theory of the African continent is, that it consists of
a well-watered trough, surrounded on all sides by an elevated rim,
composed in part of mountain ranges, and in part of high sandy deserts.
Livingstone, who had wrought out this theory from his own personal
observations, was almost disappointed when, on returning to England,
he found that the same theory had been announced on purely geological
grounds by Sir Roderick Murchison, the same philosopher who had averred
that gold must exist in Australia, long before the first diggings had
been discovered there.

Sekeletu had commissioned Livingstone, when he reached his own country,
to purchase for him a sugar-mill, a good rifle, different kinds of
clothing, brass wire, beads, and, in a word, "any other beautiful thing
he might see," furnishing him with a considerable quantity of ivory to
pay for them. Their way lay through the country of the Batoka, a fierce
tribe who had a few years before attempted "to eat up" Sebituane, with
ill success, for he dispersed them and took away their cattle. Their
country, once populous, is now almost desolate. At one of their ruined
villages Livingstone saw five-and-forty human skulls bleaching upon
stakes stuck in the ground. In the old times the chiefs used to vie with
each other as to whose village should be ornamented with the greatest
number of these ghastly trophies; and a skull was the most acceptable
present from any one who wished to curry favor with a chief. The Batoka
have an odd custom of knocking out the front teeth from the upper jaw.
The lower ones, relieved from the attrition and pressure of the upper,
grow long and protruding, forcing the lower lip out in a hideous manner.
They say that they wish their mouths to be like those of oxen, and not
like those of zebras. No young Batoka female can lay any claim to being
a belle until she has thus acquired an "ox-mouth". "Look at the great
teeth!" is the disparaging criticism made upon those who neglect to
remove their incisors. The women wear a little clothing, but the men
disdain even the paradisiacal fig-leaf, and go about in a state of
absolute nudity. Livingstone told them that he should come back some
day with his family, when none of them must come near without at least
putting on a bunch of grass. They thought it a capital joke. Their mode
of