Next Day We Came To A Village Of Banajoa, A Tribe Which Extends
Far To The Eastward.
They were living on the borders of a marsh in which
the Mahabe terminates.
They had lost their crop of corn (`Holcus sorghum'),
and now subsisted almost entirely on the root called "tsitla",
a kind of aroidoea, which contains a very large quantity of
sweet-tasted starch. When dried, pounded into meal, and allowed to ferment,
it forms a not unpleasant article of food. The women shave all the hair
off their heads, and seem darker than the Bechuanas. Their huts were built
on poles, and a fire is made beneath by night, in order that the smoke
may drive away the mosquitoes, which abound on the Mababe and Tamunak'le
more than in any other part of the country. The head man of this village,
Majane, seemed a little wanting in ability, but had had wit enough
to promote a younger member of the family to the office. This person,
the most like the ugly negro of the tobacconists' shops I ever saw,
was called Moroa Majane, or son of Majane, and proved an active guide
across the River Sonta, and to the banks of the Chobe,
in the country of Sebituane. We had come through another tsetse district
by night, and at once passed our cattle over to the northern bank
to preserve them from its ravages.
A few remarks on the Tsetse, or `Glossina morsitans', may here be appropriate.
It is not much larger than the common house-fly, and is nearly
of the same brown color as the common honey-bee; the after part of the body
has three or four yellow bars across it; the wings project
beyond this part considerably, and it is remarkably alert,
avoiding most dexterously all attempts to capture it with the hand
at common temperatures; in the cool of the mornings and evenings
it is less agile.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 136 of 1070
Words from 39339 to 39661
of 306638
