He Went Off Honestly,
With The Exception Of Taking A Fine "Tari" Skin Given Me By Nyamoana,
But He Left A Parcel Of Gun-Flints Which He Had Carried For Me
All The Way From Loanda.
I regretted parting with him thus,
and sent notice to him that he need not have run away,
and
If he wished to come to Sekeletu again he would be welcome.
We subsequently met a large party of Barotse fleeing in the same direction;
but when I represented to them that there was a probability
of their being sold as slaves in Londa, and none in the country of Sekeletu,
they concluded to return. The grievance which the Barotse most feel
is being obliged to live with Sekeletu at Linyanti, where there is neither
fish nor fowl, nor any other kind of food, equal in quantity
to what they enjoy in their own fat valley.
A short distance below the confluence of the Leeba and Leeambye
we met a number of hunters belonging to the tribe called Mambowe,
who live under Masiko. They had dried flesh of hippopotami, buffaloes,
and alligators. They stalk the animals by using the stratagem of a cap
made of the skin of a leche's or poku's head, having the horns still attached,
and another made so as to represent the upper white part of the crane
called jabiru (`Mycteru Senegalensis'), with its long neck and beak above.
With these on, they crawl through the grass; they can easily
put up their heads so far as to see their prey without being recognized until
they are within bow-shot. They presented me with three fine water-turtles,*
one of which, when cooked, had upward of forty eggs in its body.
The shell of the egg is flexible, and it is of the same size at both ends,
like those of the alligator. The flesh, and especially the liver,
is excellent. The hunters informed us that, when the message
inculcating peace among the tribes came to Masiko, the common people
were so glad at the prospect of "binding up the spears",
that they ran to the river, and bathed and plunged in it for joy. This party
had been sent by Masiko to the Makololo for aid to repel their enemy,
but, afraid to go thither, had spent the time in hunting.
They have a dread of the Makololo, and hence the joy they expressed
when peace was proclaimed. The Mambowe hunters were much alarmed
until my name was mentioned. They then joined our party,
and on the following day discovered a hippopotamus dead,
which they had previously wounded. This was the first feast of flesh
my men had enjoyed, for, though the game was wonderfully abundant,
I had quite got out of the way of shooting, and missed perpetually.
Once I went with the determination of getting so close that I should not miss
a zebra. We went along one of the branches that stretch out from the river
in a small canoe, and two men, stooping down as low as they could,
paddled it slowly along to an open space near to a herd of zebras and pokus.
Peering over the edge of the canoe, the open space seemed
like a patch of wet ground, such as is often seen on the banks of a river,
made smooth as the resting-place of alligators. When we came within
a few yards of it, we found by the precipitate plunging of the reptile
that this was a large alligator itself. Although I had been most careful
to approach near enough, I unfortunately only broke the hind leg of a zebra.
My two men pursued it, but the loss of a hind leg does not prevent this animal
from a gallop. As I walked slowly after the men on an extensive plain
covered with a great crop of grass, which was `laid' by its own weight,
I observed that a solitary buffalo, disturbed by others of my own party,
was coming to me at a gallop. I glanced around, but the only tree
on the plain was a hundred yards off, and there was no escape elsewhere.
I therefore cocked my rifle, with the intention of giving him a steady shot
in the forehead when he should come within three or four yards of me.
The thought flashed across my mind, "What if your gun misses fire?"
I placed it to my shoulder as he came on at full speed,
and that is tremendous, though generally he is a lumbering-looking animal
in his paces. A small bush and bunch of grass fifteen yards off made him
swerve a little, and exposed his shoulder. I just heard the ball crack there
as I fell flat on my face. The pain must have made him
renounce his purpose, for he bounded close past me on to the water,
where he was found dead. In expressing my thankfulness to God among my men,
they were much offended with themselves for not being present
to shield me from this danger. The tree near me was a camel-thorn,
and reminded me that we had come back to the land of thorns again,
for the country we had left is one of evergreens.
-
* It is probably a species allied to the `Sternotherus sinuatus' of Dr. Smith,
as it has no disagreeable smell. This variety annually leaves the water
with so much regularity for the deposit of its eggs, that the natives decide
on the time of sowing their seed by its appearance.
-
JULY 27TH. We reached the town of Libonta, and were received
with demonstrations of joy such as I had never witnessed before.
The women came forth to meet us, making their curious
dancing gestures and loud lulliloos. Some carried a mat and stick,
in imitation of a spear and shield. Others rushed forward and kissed
the hands and cheeks of the different persons of their acquaintance among us,
raising such a dust that it was quite a relief to get to the men
assembled and sitting with proper African decorum in the kotla.
We were looked upon as men risen from the dead, for the most skillful
of their diviners had pronounced us to have perished long ago.
After many expressions of joy at meeting, I arose, and, thanking them,
explained the causes of our long delay, but left the report to be made
by their own countrymen.
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