ople assembled to dance,
and sing, and smoke "bang," to which last they were much addicted, and
to drink beer made by themselves, of which they were remarkably fond,
and by means of which they sometimes got drunk;--in all which matters
the intelligent reader will not fail to observe that they bore a marked
resemblance to many of the civilised European nations, except, perhaps,
in their greater freedom of action, lightness of costume, and colour of
skin.

The merry voices of children, too, were heard, and their active little
black bodies were seen, while they engaged in the play of savages--
though not necessarily in savage play. Some romped, ran after each
other, caught each other, tickled each other, occasionally whacked each
other--just as our own little ones do. Others played at games, of which
the skipping-rope was a decided favourite among the girls, but the play
of most of the older children consisted in imitating the serious work of
their parents. The girls built little huts, hoed little gardens, made
small pots of clay, pounded imaginary corn in miniature mortars, cooked
it over ideal fires, and crammed it down the throats of imitation
babies; while the boys performed deeds of chivalric daring with reed
spears, small shields, and tiny bows and arrows, or amused themselves in
making cattle-pens, and in sculpturing cows and crocodiles. Human
nature, in short, was powerfully developed, without anything particular
to suggest the idea of "savage" life, or to justify the opinion of Arabs
and half-caste Portuguese that black men are all "cattle."

The scene wanted only the spire of a village church and the tinkle of a
Sabbath bell to make it perfect.

But there _was_ a tinkle among the other sounds, not unlike a bell which
would have sounded marvellously familiar to English ears had they been
listening. This was the ringing of the anvil of the village blacksmith.
Yes, savage though they were, these natives had a blacksmith who
wrought in iron, almost as deftly, and to the full as vigorously, as any
British son of Vulcan. The Manganja people are an industrious race.
Besides cultivating the soil extensively, they dig iron-ore out of the
hills, and each village has its smelting-house, its charcoal-burners,
its forge with a pair of goatskin bellows, and its blacksmith--we might
appropriately say, its _very_ blacksmith! Whether the latter would of
necessity, and as a matter of course, sing bass in church if the lan