Mpololo, Attempting To Justify An Opposite Line Of Conduct,
Told Me How They Had Fled From Sebituane, Even Though He
Had given them
numbers of cattle after their subjection by his arms, and was rather surprised
to find that I
Was disposed to think more highly of them
for having asserted their independence, even at the loss of milk.
For this food, all who have been accustomed to it from infancy in Africa
have an excessive longing. I pointed out how they might be
mutually beneficial to each other by the exchange of canoes and cattle.
There are some very old Barotse living here who were the companions
of the old chief Santuru. These men, protected by their age, were very free
in their comments on the "upstart" Makololo. One of them, for instance,
interrupted my conversation one day with some Makololo gentlemen
with the advice "not to believe them, for they were only a set of thieves;"
and it was taken in quite a good-natured way. It is remarkable that
none of the ancients here had any tradition of an earthquake having occurred
in this region. Their quick perception of events recognizable by the senses,
and retentiveness of memory, render it probable that no perceptible
movement of the earth has taken place between 7 Deg. and 27 Deg. S.
in the centre of the continent during the last two centuries at least.
There is no appearance of recent fracture or disturbance of rocks
to be seen in the central country, except the falls of Gonye;
nor is there any evidence or tradition of hurricanes.
I left Naliele on the 13th of August, and, when proceeding along the shore
at midday, a hippopotamus struck the canoe with her forehead,
lifting one half of it quite out of the water, so as nearly to overturn it.
The force of the butt she gave tilted Mashauana out into the river;
the rest of us sprang to the shore, which was only about ten yards off.
Glancing back, I saw her come to the surface a short way off,
and look to the canoe, as if to see if she had done much mischief.
It was a female, whose young one had been speared the day before.
No damage was done except wetting person and goods. This is so unusual
an occurrence, when the precaution is taken to coast along the shore,
that my men exclaimed, "Is the beast mad?" There were eight of us
in the canoe at the time, and the shake it received shows
the immense power of this animal in the water.
On reaching Gonye, Mokwala, the head man, having presented me with a tusk,
I gave it to Pitsane, as he was eagerly collecting ivory
for the Loanda market. The rocks of Gonye are reddish gray sandstone,
nearly horizontal, and perforated by madrepores, the holes showing
the course of the insect in different directions. The rock itself
has been impregnated with iron, and that hardened, forms a glaze
on the surface - an appearance common to many of the rocks of this country.
AUGUST 22D. This is the end of winter. The trees which line the banks
begin to bud and blossom, and there is some show of the influence
of the new sap, which will soon end in buds that push off the old foliage
by assuming a very bright orange color. This orange is so bright that
I mistook it for masses of yellow blossom. There is every variety of shade
in the leaves - yellow, purple, copper, liver-color, and even inky black.
Having got the loan of other canoes from Mpololo, and three oxen
as provision for the way, which made the number we had been presented with
in the Barotse valley amount to thirteen, we proceeded down the river
toward Sesheke, and were as much struck as formerly with the noble river.
The whole scenery is lovely, though the atmosphere is murky
in consequence of the continuance of the smoky tinge of winter.
This peculiar tinge of the atmosphere was observed every winter at Kolobeng,
but it was not so observable in Londa as in the south, though I had always
considered that it was owing to the extensive burnings of the grass,
in which hundreds of miles of pasturage are annually consumed.
As the quantity burned in the north is very much greater than in the south,
and the smoky tinge of winter was not observed, some other explanation
than these burnings must be sought for. I have sometimes imagined
that the lowering of the temperature in the winter rendered the vapor
in the upper current of air visible, and imparted this hazy appearance.
The amount of organic life is surprising. At the time the river
begins to rise, the `Ibis religiosa' comes down in flocks of fifties,
with prodigious numbers of other water-fowl. Some of the sand-banks
appear whitened during the day with flocks of pelicans - I once counted
three hundred; others are brown with ducks (`Anas histrionica') -
I got fourteen of these by one shot (`Querquedula Hottentota', Smith),
and other kinds. Great numbers of gulls (`Procellaria turtur', Smith),
and several others, float over the surface. The vast quantity of small birds,
which feed on insects, show that the river teems also
with specimens of minute organic life. In walking among bushes on the banks
we are occasionally stung by a hornet, which makes its nest
in form like that of our own wasp, and hangs it on the branches of trees.
The breeding storgh* is so strong in this insect that it pursues any one
twenty or thirty yards who happens to brush too closely past its nest.
The sting, which it tries to inflict near the eye, is more like
a discharge of electricity from a powerful machine, or a violent blow,
than aught else. It produces momentary insensibility,
and is followed by the most pungent pain. Yet this insect is quite timid
when away from its nest.
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