Scotland/Scots > Last years of Livingstone

96
THE LAST YEARS OF LIVINGSTONE.
of the continent are, as a rule, fair average specimens of
humanity.
I happened to be present when all the head men of the
great chief Insama, who lives west of the south end of
Tanganyika, had come together to make peace with cer¬
tain Arabs who had burned their chief town, and I am
certain one could not see more finely-formed intellectual
heads in any assembly in London or Paris, and the faces
and forms corresponded with the finely-shaped heads.
Insama himself had been a sort of Napoleon for fight¬
ing and conquering in his younger days, was exactly like
the ancient Assyrians sculptured on the Nineveh marbles,
as Nimrod and others ; _ he showed himself to be one of
ourselves by habitually indulging in copious potations of
beer, called pombe, and had become what Nathaniel Haw¬
thorne called “ bulbous,” below the ribs.
IJJdon’t know where the phrase “bloated aristocracy”
arose. It must be American, for I have had glimpses of a
good many English noblemen, and Insama was the only
specimen of a bloated aristocrat on whom I ever set my
eyes.
Many of the women were very pretty, and, like all la¬
dies, would have been much prettier if they had only let
themselves alone. Fortunately, the dears could not change
their charming black eyes, beautiful foreheads, nicely
rounded limbs, well-shaped forms, and small hands and
feet. But they must adorn themselves ; and this they do
—oh, the hussies!—by filing their splendid teeth to points
like cat’s teeth. It was distressing, for it made their