And Thou, Ramosinii, Thy Village
Will Perish Utterly.
If Mokari removes from that village
he will perish first, and thou, Ramosinii, wilt be the last to die."
Concerning himself he added, "The gods have caused other men to drink water,
but to me they have given bitter water of the chukuru (rhinoceros).
They call me away myself.
I can not stay much longer."
This vaticination, which loses much in the translation, I have given
rather fully, as it shows an observant mind. The policy recommended was wise,
and the deaths of the "senoga" and of the two men he had named,
added to the destruction of their village, having all happened soon after,
it is not wonderful that Sebituane followed implicitly the warning voice.
The fire pointed to was evidently the Portuguese fire-arms,
of which he must have heard. The black men referred to were the Barotse,
or, as they term themselves, Baloiana; and Sebituane spared their chiefs,
even though they attacked him first. He had ascended the Barotse valley,
but was pursued by the Matebele, as Mosilikatse never could forgive
his former defeats. They came up the river in a very large body.
Sebituane placed some goats on one of the large islands of the Zambesi
as a bait to the warriors, and some men in canoes to co-operate
in the manoeuvre. When they were all ferried over to the island,
the canoes were removed, and the Matebele found themselves completely
in a trap, being perfectly unable to swim.
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