These, According To Intemese,
Are At Present Impassable On Account Of Being Thigh Deep.
The Plains Are So Perfectly Level That Rain-Water, Which This Was,
Stands Upon Them For Months Together.
They were not flooded by the Leeba,
for that was still far within its banks.
Here and there,
dotted over the surface, are little islands, on which grow
stunted date-bushes and scraggy trees. The plains themselves are covered
with a thick sward of grass, which conceals the water, and makes the flats
appear like great pale yellow-colored prairie-lands, with a clear horizon,
except where interrupted here and there by trees. The clear rain-water
must have stood some time among the grass, for great numbers of lotus-flowers
were seen in full blow; and the runs of water tortoises and crabs
were observed; other animals also, which prey on the fish that find their way
to the plains.
The continual splashing of the oxen keeps the feet of the rider
constantly wet, and my men complain of the perpetual moisture of the paths
by which we have traveled in Londa as softening their horny soles.
The only information we can glean is from Intemese, who points out
the different localities as we pass along, and among the rest
"Mokala a Mama", his "mamma's home". It was interesting
to hear this tall gray-headed man recall the memories of boyhood.
All the Makalaka children cleave to the mother in cases of separation,
or removal from one part of the country to another. This love for mothers
does not argue superior morality in other respects, or else Intemese
has forgotten any injunctions his mamma may have given him not to tell lies.
The respect, however, with which he spoke of her was quite
characteristic of his race. The Bechuanas, on the contrary,
care nothing for their mothers, but cling to their fathers,
especially if they have any expectation of becoming heirs to their cattle.
Our Bakwain guide to the lake, Rachosi, told me that his mother lived
in the country of Sebituane, but, though a good specimen of the Bechuanas,
he laughed at the idea of going so far as from the Lake Ngami to the Chobe
merely for the purpose of seeing her. Had he been one of the Makalaka,
he never would have parted from her.
We made our beds on one of the islands, and were wretchedly supplied
with firewood. The booths constructed by the men were but sorry shelter,
for the rain poured down without intermission till midday.
There is no drainage for the prodigious masses of water on these plains,
except slow percolation into the different feeders of the Leeba,
and into that river itself. The quantity of vegetation has prevented
the country from becoming furrowed by many rivulets or "nullahs".
Were it not so remarkably flat, the drainage must have been effected
by torrents, even in spite of the matted vegetation.
That these extensive plains are covered with grasses only,
and the little islands with but scraggy trees, may be accounted for
by the fact, observable every where in this country, that,
where water stands for any length of time, trees can not live.
The want of speedy drainage destroys them, and injures the growth of those
that are planted on the islands, for they have no depth of earth
not subjected to the souring influence of the stagnant water.
The plains of Lobale, to the west of these, are said to be much more extensive
than any we saw, and their vegetation possesses similar peculiarities.
When the stagnant rain-water has all soaked in, as must happen
during the months in which there is no rain, travelers are even put to straits
for want of water.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 252 of 572
Words from 134504 to 135129
of 306638
