"I am the great Moene
(lord) Katema, the fellow of Matiamvo.
There is no one in the country
equal to Matiamvo and me. I have always lived here, and my forefathers too.
There is the house in which my father lived. You found no human skulls
near the place where you are encamped. I never killed any of the traders;
they all come to me. I am the great Moene Katema, of whom you have heard."
He looked as if he had fallen asleep tipsy, and dreamed of his greatness.
On explaining my objects to him, he promptly pointed out three men
who would be our guides, and explained that the northwest path
was the most direct, and that by which all traders came,
but that the water at present standing on the plains would reach
up to the loins; he would therefore send us by a more northerly route,
which no trader had yet traversed. This was more suited to our wishes,
for we never found a path safe that had been trodden by slave-traders.
We presented a few articles, which pleased him highly: a small shawl,
a razor, three bunches of beads, some buttons, and a powder-horn.
Apologizing for the insignificance of the gift, I wished to know
what I could bring him from Loanda, saying, not a large thing,
but something small. He laughed heartily at the limitation, and replied,
"Every thing of the white people would be acceptable, and he would receive
any thing thankfully; but the coat he then had on was old,
and he would like another." I introduced the subject of the Bible,
but one of the old councilors broke in, told all he had picked up
from the Mambari, and glided off into several other subjects.
It is a misery to speak through an interpreter, as I was now forced to do.
With a body of men like mine, composed as they were of six different tribes,
and all speaking the language of the Bechuanas, there was no difficulty
in communicating on common subjects with any tribe we came to;
but doling out a story in which they felt no interest, and which I understood
only sufficiently well to perceive that a mere abridgment was given,
was uncommonly slow work. Neither could Katema's attention be arrested,
except by compliments, of which they have always plenty to bestow
as well as receive. We were strangers, and knew that, as Makololo,
we had not the best of characters, yet his treatment of us
was wonderfully good and liberal.
I complimented him on the possession of cattle, and pleased him by telling him
how he might milk the cows. He has a herd of about thirty,
really splendid animals, all reared from two which he bought from the Balobale
when he was young. They are generally of a white color, and are quite wild,
running off with graceful ease like a herd of elands on the approach
of a stranger.
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