CHAPTER X.
The Lake tribes--The Mazitu--Quantities of elephants--Distressing journey--Detention on the Shire.
Never before in Africa have we seen anything like the dense population on the shores of Lake Nyassa.

In the southern part there was an almost unbroken chain of villages.

On the beach of wellnigh of every little sandy bay, dark crowds were standing, gazing at the novel sight of a boat under sail; and wherever we landed we were surrounded in a few seconds by hundreds of men, women, and children, who hastened to have a stare at the "chirombo" (wild animals).
During a portion of the year, the northern dwellers on the lake have a harvest which furnishes a singular sort of food.

As we approached our limit in that direction, clouds, as of smoke rising from miles of burning grass, were observed bending in a south-easterly direction, and we thought that the unseen land on the opposite side was closing in, and that we were near the end of the lake.

But next morning we sailed through one of the clouds on our own side, and discovered that it was neither smoke nor haze, but countless millions of minute midges called "kungo" (a cloud or fog).