It Is, At Any Rate, Very Much Changed
In Respect To Its Lakes Within A Comparatively Recent Period.
At three spots near these falls, one of them the island in the middle,
on which we were, three Batoka chiefs offered up prayers and sacrifices
to the Barimo.
They chose their places of prayer within the sound
of the roar of the cataract, and in sight of the bright bows in the cloud.
They must have looked upon the scene with awe. Fear may have
induced the selection. The river itself is to them mysterious.
The words of the canoe-song are,
"The Leeambye! Nobody knows
Whence it comes and whither it goes."
The play of colors of the double iris on the cloud, seen by them elsewhere
only as the rainbow, may have led them to the idea that this was
the abode of Deity. Some of the Makololo, who went with me near to Gonye,
looked upon the same sign with awe. When seen in the heavens
it is named "motse oa barimo" - the pestle of the gods.
Here they could approach the emblem, and see it stand steadily above
the blustering uproar below - a type of Him who sits supreme -
alone unchangeable, though ruling over all changing things. But, not aware
of His true character, they had no admiration of the beautiful and good
in their bosoms. They did not imitate His benevolence, for they were
a bloody, imperious crew, and Sebituane performed a noble service
in the expulsion from their fastnesses of these cruel "Lords of the Isles".
Having feasted my eyes long on the beautiful sight, I returned to my friends
at Kalai, and saying to Sekeletu that he had nothing else worth showing
in his country, his curiosity was excited to visit it the next day.
I returned with the intention of taking a lunar observation
from the island itself, but the clouds were unfavorable,
consequently all my determinations of position refer to Kalai.
(Lat. 17d 51' 54" S., long. 25d 41' E.) Sekeletu acknowledged to feeling
a little nervous at the probability* of being sucked into the gulf
before reaching the island. His companions amused themselves
by throwing stones down, and wondered to see them diminishing in size,
and even disappearing, before they reached the water at the bottom.
-
* In modern American English, the word "possibility" is more appropriate here,
and elsewhere in the text where "probability" is used. - A. L., 1997.
-
I had another object in view in my return to the island. I observed
that it was covered with trees, the seeds of which had probably
come down with the stream from the distant north, and several of which
I had seen nowhere else, and every now and then the wind wafted
a little of the condensed vapor over it, and kept the soil
in a state of moisture, which caused a sward of grass, growing as green
as on an English lawn. I selected a spot - not too near the chasm,
for there the constant deposition of the moisture nourished
numbers of polypi of a mushroom shape and fleshy consistence,
but somewhat back - and made a little garden.
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