- The Donkeys - Influence Among The Natives -
"Food Fit For A Chief" - Parting Words Of Mamire - Motibe's Excuses.
On the 31st of July we parted with our kind Libonta friends.
We planted some of our palm-tree seeds in different villages of this valley.
They began to sprout even while we were there, but, unfortunately,
they were always destroyed by the mice which swarm in every hut.
At Chitlane's village we collected the young of a colony of
the linkololo (`Anastomus lamalligerus'), a black, long-legged bird,
somewhat larger than a crow, which lives on shellfish (`Ampullaria'),
and breeds in society at certain localities among the reeds.
These places are well known, as they continue there from year to year,
and belong to the chiefs, who at particular times of the year
gather most of the young. The produce of this "harvest", as they call it,
which was presented to me, was a hundred and seventy-five unfledged birds.
They had been rather late in collecting them, in consequence of waiting
for the arrival of Mpololo, who acts the part of chief, but gave them to me,
knowing that this would be pleasing to him, otherwise this colony
would have yielded double the amount. The old ones appear along the Leeambye
in vast flocks, and look lean and scraggy. The young are very fat,
and, when roasted, are esteemed one of the dainties of the Barotse valley.
In presents of this kind, as well as of oxen, it is a sort of feast of joy,
the person to whom they are presented having the honor of distributing
the materials of the feast.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 737 of 1070
Words from 211477 to 211747
of 306638
