The Well-Known Disgust Which The Tsetse Shows To Animal Excreta,
As Exhibited When A Village Is Placed In Its
Habitat,
has been observed and turned to account by some of the doctors.
They mix droppings of animals, human milk,
And some medicines together,
and smear the animals that are about to pass through a tsetse district;
but this, though it proves a preventive at the time, is not permanent.
There is no cure yet known for the disease. A careless herdsman
allowing a large number of cattle to wander into a tsetse district
loses all except the calves; and Sebituane once lost
nearly the entire cattle of his tribe, very many thousands, by unwittingly
coming under its influence. Inoculation does not insure immunity,
as animals which have been slightly bitten in one year may perish
by a greater number of bites in the next; but it is probable
that with the increase of guns the game will perish, as has happened
in the south, and the tsetse, deprived of food, may become extinct
simultaneously with the larger animals.
The Makololo whom we met on the Chobe were delighted to see us;
and as their chief Sebituane was about twenty miles down the river,
Mr. Oswell and I proceeded in canoes to his temporary residence.
He had come from the Barotse town of Naliele down to Sesheke
as soon as he heard of white men being in search of him,
and now came one hundred miles more to bid us welcome into his country.
He was upon an island, with all his principal men around him,
and engaged in singing when we arrived.
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