In many parts the soil was quite dry
and the leaves drooped mournfully, but the fruit-trees are unaffected
By a drought, except when it happens at the time of their blossoming.
The Batoka of my party declared that no one ever dies of hunger here.
We obtained baskets of maneko, a curious fruit, with a horny rind,
split into five pieces: these sections, when chewed, are full of
a fine glutinous matter, and sweet like sugar. The seeds are covered
with a yellow silky down, and are not eaten: the entire fruit is about
the size of a walnut. We got also abundance of the motsouri and mamosho.
We saw the Batoka eating the beans called nju, which are contained
in a large square pod; also the pulp between the seeds of nux vomica,
and the motsintsela. Other fruits become ripe at other seasons,
as the motsikiri, which yields an oil, and is a magnificent tree,
bearing masses of dark evergreen leaves; so that, from the general plenty,
one can readily believe the statement made by the Batoka.
We here saw trees allowed to stand in gardens, and some of the Batoka
even plant them, a practice seen nowhere else among natives.
A species of leucodendron abounds. When we meet with it on a spot
on which no rain has yet fallen, we see that the young ones
twist their leaves round during the heat of the day, so that the edge only
is exposed to the rays of the sun; they have then a half twist on the petiole.
The acacias in the same circumstances, and also the mopane (`Bauhania'),
fold their leaves together, and, by presenting the smallest possible surface
to the sun, simulate the eucalypti of Australia.
Chapter 27.
Low Hills - Black Soldier-Ants; their Cannibalism -
The Plasterer and its Chloroform - White Ants; their Usefulness -
Mutokwane-smoking; its Effects - Border Territory -
Healthy Table-lands - Geological Formation - Cicadae -
Trees - Flowers - River Kalomo - Physical Conformation of Country -
Ridges, sanatoria - A wounded Buffalo assisted - Buffalo-bird -
Rhinoceros-bird - Leaders of Herds - The Honey-guide -
The White Mountain - Mozuma River - Sebituane's old Home -
Hostile Village - Prophetic Phrensy - Food of the Elephant -
Ant-hills - Friendly Batoka - Clothing despised - Method of Salutation -
Wild Fruits - The Captive released - Longings for Peace -
Pingola's Conquests - The Village of Monze - Aspect of the Country -
Visit from the Chief Monze and his Wife - Central healthy Locations -
Friendly Feelings of the People in reference to a white Resident -
Fertility of the Soil - Bashukulompo Mode of dressing their Hair -
Gratitude of the Prisoner we released - Kindness and Remarks
of Monze's Sister - Dip of the Rocks - Vegetation -
Generosity of the Inhabitants - Their Anxiety for Medicine -
Hooping-cough - Birds and Rain.
NOVEMBER 27TH. Still at Marimba's. In the adjacent country palms abound,
but none of that species which yields the oil; indeed, that is met with
only near the coast. There are numbers of flowers and bulbs just shooting up
from the soil. The surface is rough, and broken into gullies;
and, though the country is parched, it has not that appearance,
so many trees having put forth their fresh green leaves
at the time the rains ought to have come. Among the rest stands the mola,
with its dark brownish-green color and spreading oak-like form.
In the distance there are ranges of low hills. On the north we have one
called Kanjele, and to the east that of Kaonka, to which we proceed to-morrow.
We have made a considerable detour to the north, both on account of our wish
to avoid the tsetse and to visit the people. Those of Kaonka are
the last Batoka we shall meet, in friendship with the Makololo.
Walking down to the forest, after telling these poor people,
for the first time in their lives, that the Son of God
had so loved them as to come down from heaven to save them,
I observed many regiments of black soldier-ants returning from
their marauding expeditions. These I have often noticed before
in different parts of the country; and as we had, even at Kolobeng,
an opportunity of observing their habits, I may give
a short account of them here. They are black, with a slight tinge of gray,
about half an inch in length, and on the line of march appear
three or four abreast; when disturbed, they utter a distinct
hissing or chirping sound. They follow a few leaders who never carry
any thing, and they seem to be guided by a scent left on the path
by the leaders; for, happening once to throw the water from my basin
behind a bush where I was dressing, it lighted on the path
by which a regiment had passed before I began my toilette,
and when they returned they were totally at a loss to find the way home,
though they continued searching for it nearly half an hour.
It was found only by one making a long circuit round the wetted spot.
The scent may have indicated also the propriety of their going
in one direction only. If a handful of earth is thrown on the path
at the middle of the regiment, either on its way home or abroad,
those behind it are completely at a loss as to their farther progress.
Whatever it may be that guides them, they seem only to know
that they are not to return, for they come up to the handful of earth,
but will not cross it, though not a quarter of an inch high.
They wheel round and regain their path again, but never think of retreating
to the nest, or to the place where they have been stealing.
After a quarter of an hour's confusion and hissing, one may make
a circuit of a foot round the earth, and soon all follow in that
roundabout way. When on their way to attack the abode of the white ants,
the latter may be observed rushing about in a state of great perturbation.
The black leaders, distinguished from the rest by their greater size,
especially in the region of the sting, then seize the white ants one by one,
and inflict a sting, which seems to inject a portion of fluid
similar in effect to chloroform, as it renders them insensible, but not dead,
and only able to move one or two front legs.
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