Very Large Tracts Of Country Are Denuded Of Old Grass During The Winter
By Means Of Fire, In Order To Attract The Game To That Which There Springs Up
Unmixed With The Older Crop.
This new herbage has a renovating tendency,
for as long as they feed on the dry grass of the
Former season
they continue in good condition; but no sooner are they able to indulge
their appetites on the fresh herbage, than even the marrow in their bones
becomes dissolved, and a red, soft, uneatable mass is left behind.
After this commences the work of regaining their former plumpness.
MAY 30TH. We left Bango, and proceeded to the River Loembwe,
which flows to the N.N.E., and abounds in hippopotami.
It is about sixty yards wide, and four feet deep, but usually contains
much less water than this, for there are fishing-weirs placed right across it.
Like all the African rivers in this quarter, it has morasses on each bank,
yet the valley in which it winds, when seen from the high lands above,
is extremely beautiful. This valley is about the fourth of a mile wide,
and it was easy to fancy the similarity of many spots on it
to the goodly manors in our own country, and feel assured that there was still
ample territory left for an indefinite increase of the world's population.
The villages are widely apart and difficult of access, from the paths being
so covered with tall grass that even an ox can scarcely follow the track.
The grass cuts the feet of the men; yet we met a woman with a little child,
and a girl, wending their way home with loads of manioc.
The sight of a white man always infuses a tremor into their dark bosoms,
and in every case of the kind they appeared immensely relieved
when I had fairly passed without having sprung upon them.
In the villages the dogs run away with their tails between their legs,
as if they had seen a lion. The women peer from behind the walls
till he comes near them, and then hastily dash into the house.
When a little child, unconscious of danger, meets you in the street,
he sets up a scream at the apparition, and conveys the impression
that he is not far from going into fits. Among the Bechuanas I have been
obliged to reprove the women for making a hobgoblin of the white man,
and telling their children that they would send for him to bite them.
Having passed the Loembwe, we were in a more open country,
with every few hours a small valley, through which ran a little rill
in the middle of a bog. These were always difficult to pass,
and being numerous, kept the lower part of the person constantly wet.
At different points in our course we came upon votive offerings to the Barimo.
These usually consisted of food; and every deserted village
still contained the idols and little sheds with pots of medicine in them.
One afternoon we passed a small frame house with the head of an ox in it as
an object of worship.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 372 of 572
Words from 198687 to 199216
of 306638
