Here They Were Very Frequently Seen,
And Two Of The Largest I Ever Saw Seemed About As Tall As Common Donkeys;
But The Mane Made Their Bodies Appear Rather Larger.
A party of Arabs from Zanzibar were in the country at this time.
Sekeletu had gone from Naliele to the town of his mother before we arrived
from the north, but left an ox for our use, and instructions for us
to follow him thither.
We came down a branch of the Leeambye called Marile,
which departs from the main river in latitude 15d 15' 43" S.,
and is a fine deep stream about sixty yards wide. It makes
the whole of the country around Naliele an island. When sleeping at a village
in the same latitude as Naliele town, two of the Arabs mentioned
made their appearance. They were quite as dark as the Makololo,
but, having their heads shaved, I could not compare their hair
with that of the inhabitants of the country. When we were about to leave
they came to bid adieu, but I asked them to stay and help us to eat our ox.
As they had scruples about eating an animal not blooded in their own way,
I gained their good-will by saying I was quite of their opinion
as to getting quit of the blood, and gave them two legs of an animal
slaughtered by themselves. They professed the greatest detestation
of the Portuguese, "because they eat pigs;" and disliked the English,
"because they thrash them for selling slaves." I was silent about pork;
though, had they seen me at a hippopotamus two days afterward,
they would have set me down as being as much a heretic as any of that nation;
but I ventured to tell them that I agreed with the English,
that it was better to let the children grow up and comfort their mothers
when they became old, than to carry them away and sell them across the sea.
This they never attempt to justify; "they want them only
to cultivate the land, and take care of them as their children."
It is the same old story, justifying a monstrous wrong
on pretense of taking care of those degraded portions of humanity
which can not take care of themselves; doing evil that good may come.
These Arabs, or Moors, could read and write their own language readily;
and, when speaking about our Savior, I admired the boldness
with which they informed me "that Christ was a very good prophet,
but Mohammed was far greater." And with respect to their loathing of pork,
it may have some foundation in their nature; for I have known Bechuanas,
who had no prejudice against the wild animal, and ate the tame
without scruple, yet, unconscious of any cause of disgust, vomit it again.
The Bechuanas south of the lake have a prejudice against eating fish,
and allege a disgust to eating any thing like a serpent.
This may arise from the remnants of serpent-worship floating in their minds,
as, in addition to this horror of eating such animals, they sometimes render
a sort of obeisance to living serpents by clapping their hands to them,
and refusing to destroy the reptiles; but in the case of the hog
they are conscious of no superstitious feeling.
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