Fragment of 1870 Field Diary (LXX-LXXV)
David Livingstone

Date of composition: 12-23 December 1870
Place of composition: Bambarre
Repository: National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Shelfmark: MS.10703, ff. 24-26
Clendennen & Cunningham number(s): Field Diaries, 037
Digital edition and date: Livingstone Online, 2016
Publisher: University of Maryland Libraries, College Park, MD, USA
Project id: liv_000207
TEI encoding: Adrian S. Wisnicki, Megan Ward, Heather F. Ball, Ashanka Kumari, Alexander Munson

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LXX. Lions fat is regarded as a sure preventative of [24]
Tsetse or Bungo - This was noted before but I add now
that it is smeared on the ox tail - preserves hundreds of the
Banyamwesi cattle in safely while going to the Coast -
5It is also used to keep [ ] pigs and Hippopotami
away from gardens - - The smell is probably
the efficacious part in Heresi

12 Decr It may all be for the best that I am so
10hindered and compelled to inactivity - advance
to Lohombo was the furthest point of traders
for many a day - slaves returning with ivory
were speared mercilessly by Manyema because
they did not know guns could kill & their
15spears could - Katomba coming to Moenekuss
was a great feat three or four years ago
Then Dugumbe went on to Lualaba and fought his
way - So I may be restrained now in mercy
till men come - those I had were not men nor
20yet slaves - Hybrids between bond & free so petted
& coddled as to think the English feared them

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LXXI The Neggeri an African animal attacks the
testicles of man and beast - cuts them off and retires
contented - Buffaloes are often castrated by him -
Men who know it squat down & kill him with knife
5or gun - Lions fear him{the} Zibu or Ratel
Zibu or Mbuidé flies at the tendo achilles =
Ratel? - Fisi ea Baharai probably the seal
is abundant in the seas but the Ratel or badger
probably furnished the skins for the Tabernacle
10Bees die or escape from his droppings
or urine and he eats the honey in safety -
Lions & all other animals fear his attacks of the heel
about 25 to a measure
the Babemba mix a handful of castor oil seeds with
15the dura ^ and they pou{gri}nd Meleza = usages makes them like it
is not perceptible in porridge
The nauseous taste and the oil is needed where so
much farinaceous or starchy matter exists and
the bowels are regulated by the mixture
20experience ^ has taught them the need of a fatty ingredient

Moamba - Chassa - brother of Do Chambeze = other brother of
Chassa - Do in way - Moenewifa large country - Komanga
and 6 days to Barari thence

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LXXII. Goambari is a prisoner at Merere's guarded [25]
by a thousand or more men to prevent him intriguing with
Monyungo who is known as bloodthirsty - In the third
generation charura's descendants numbered sixty
5able bodied spearmen - Garahenga ^ or Kimamure killed many of
them - charura had six white attendants with
him but all died before he did and on becoming
chief he got all his predecessors wives - Merere
is the son of a woman of the royal stock and of a
10common man - Hence he is a shade or two
darker than Charura's descendants who are very
light coloured and have straight noses - They
shave the head and straight hair is all cut off -
they drink much milk warm from the teats of the
15cows and think that it is strengthening by its heat.
The descent is 1 Charura - 2 Mokasi - 3 Moenye-
gumbe = 4 Mamerere = Merere = Mogandira son of 3
died after one years rule - Kimamure a coward followed
2nd son of 3 made Merere general = Goambari called
20 Monyungo to first Merere - Kimamure or otherwise Garahen
ga killed many by Merere's hand - calls himself his slave
but rules him and all besides

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LXXIII Decr 23d 1870 - Bambarre people suffer hunger now
because they will not plant cassava - This trading party eats all
the maize and sends to a distance for more - Manyema buy from
them with malofu or Palm toddy - Rice all coming into ear
5but Manyema planted more Maize ripening - mice a pest
a strong man among Manyema does as he pleases &
no chief inteferes - a man's wife of ten goats was
given off to a Mene man and his child now grown
is given away too - comes to Muhamad for redress
10Two Elephants killed were very large but have
small tusks - They come from South in the rains
All animals as elephants buffaloes - zebras
are very large in Basango country - tusks full
in the hollows weigh very heavy - animals fat
15& good in flesh Eleven goats for the flesh

24th Between 25 and 30 slaves have died in the present
epidemic - also many Manyema - Two yesterday at
Kandawara - The feet swell then the hands and
face and in a day or two they drop dead - It came
20from the East and is very fatal - few escape who take
it.

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LXXIV. a woman was accused of stealing maize - the ch[ ] 26
here sent all his people yesterday - plundered all she had in [ ]
house and garden and brought her husband bound in
thongs till he shall pay a goat -- She is said to be inn[ ]
5 Monangoi does this by fear of the traders here an[ ]
as the people tell him as soon as they are gone th[ ]
vengeance he is earning by injustice on all sides
will be taken - I told the chief that his head would
be as also Kasessa's.

10

Three men went from Katomba to Kasongo's to
buy viramba - a man was speared belonging to
Kasongo - these three then fired into a mass of
men who collected one killed two another three & so on
So now that place is shut up from traders -
15and all this country will be so as soon as the
Manyema learn that guns are limited in their power
of killing and especially in the hands of slaves who
cannot shoot but only make a noise - These Suaheli
are the most cruel and bloodthirsty missionaries in
20existence and withal so impure in talk & acts - spreading
syphilis Buboes & chancres - The Lord sees it.

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LXXV 28 Decr 1870 Moenembag the most intelligent of the
two sons of Moenekus in power told us that a man was
killed & eaten a few miles from this yesterday - Hunger the reason
assigned = on speaking of tainted meat he said that the Manyema
5put meat in water two days to make it putrid & smell high = The
love of high meat is the only reason I know for their cannibalism
but the practice is now hidden on account of the disgust that
the traders expressed against open man eating when they
first arrived - Lightning very near us last night - The
10 Manyema say that when it is so loud fishes of large
size fall with it - an opinion shared in with them
by the Arabs = But the large fish is the clarias capensis
of Smith and it is often seen migrating in single file
along the wet grass for miles - It is probably this
15that the Manyema think falls from lightning.

30th Rain daily - a woman murdered without cause
close by the camp - murderer said she is a witch & speare[ ]
her - body exposed till affair is settled probably by fine of g[ ]
the Manyema are the most bloody callous savages I
20know - one puts a scarlet feather on ground and challeng[ ]
those near to stick it in the hair - He who does so must kill a
man or woman - and so none dare wear skin of musk ca[ ]
Ngawa unless he has murdered - guns alone prevent them
from killing us all - and for no reason either.