We Were Still Forty Or Fifty Yards
From The Clear Water, But Now We Were Opposed By Great Masses Of Papyrus,
Which Are Like Palms In Miniature, Eight Or Ten Feet High,
And An Inch And A Half In Diameter.
These were laced together
by twining convolvulus, so strongly that the weight of both of us
could not make way into the clear water.
At last we fortunately found
a passage prepared by a hippopotamus. Eager as soon as we reached the island
to look along the vista to clear water, I stepped in and found
it took me at once up to the neck.
Returning nearly worn out, we proceeded up the bank of the Chobe
till we came to the point of departure of the branch Sanshureh; we then went
in the opposite direction, or down the Chobe, though from the highest trees
we could see nothing but one vast expanse of reed, with here and there
a tree on the islands. This was a hard day's work; and when we came
to a deserted Bayeiye hut on an ant-hill, not a bit of wood or any thing else
could be got for a fire except the grass and sticks of the dwelling itself.
I dreaded the "Tampans", so common in all old huts; but outside of it
we had thousands of mosquitoes, and cold dew began to be deposited,
so we were fain to crawl beneath its shelter.
We were close to the reeds, and could listen to the strange sounds
which are often heard there. By day I had seen water-snakes
putting up their heads and swimming about. There were great
numbers of otters (`Lutra inunguis', F. Cuvier), which have made
little spoors all over the plains in search of the fishes,
among the tall grass of these flooded prairies; curious birds, too,
jerked and wriggled among these reedy masses, and we heard
human-like voices and unearthly sounds, with splash, guggle, jupp,
as if rare fun were going on in their uncouth haunts. At one time something
came near us, making a splashing like that of a canoe or hippopotamus;
thinking it to be the Makololo, we got up, listened, and shouted;
then discharged a gun several times; but the noise continued
without intermission for an hour. After a damp, cold night we set to,
early in the morning, at our work of exploring again, but left the pontoon
in order to lighten our labor. The ant-hills are here very high,
some thirty feet, and of a base so broad that trees grow on them;
while the lands, annually flooded, bear nothing but grass.
From one of these ant-hills we discovered an inlet to the Chobe;
and, having gone back for the pontoon, we launched ourselves on a deep river,
here from eighty to one hundred yards wide. I gave my companion
strict injunctions to stick by the pontoon in case a hippopotamus
should look at us; nor was this caution unnecessary,
for one came up at our side and made a desperate plunge off.
We had passed over him. The wave he made caused the pontoon to glide
quickly away from him.
We paddled on from midday till sunset. There was nothing but a wall of reed
on each bank, and we saw every prospect of spending a supperless night
in our float; but just as the short twilight of these parts was commencing,
we perceived on the north bank the village of Moremi, one of the Makololo,
whose acquaintance I had made on our former visit, and who was now located
on the island Mahonta (lat. 17d 58' S., long. 24d 6' E.).
The villagers looked as we may suppose people do who see a ghost,
and in their figurative way of speaking said, "He has dropped among us
from the clouds, yet came riding on the back of a hippopotamus!
We Makololo thought no one could cross the Chobe without our knowledge,
but here he drops among us like a bird."
Next day we returned in canoes across the flooded lands, and found that,
in our absence, the men had allowed the cattle to wander
into a very small patch of wood to the west containing the tsetse;
this carelessness cost me ten fine large oxen. After remaining a few days,
some of the head men of the Makololo came down from Linyanti,
with a large party of Barotse, to take us across the river.
This they did in fine style, swimming and diving among the oxen
more like alligators than men, and taking the wagons to pieces
and carrying them across on a number of canoes lashed together.
We were now among friends; so going about thirty miles to the north,
in order to avoid the still flooded lands on the north of the Chobe,
we turned westward toward Linyanti (lat. 18d 17' 20" S., long. 23d 50' 9" E.),
where we arrived on the 23d of May, 1853. This is the capital town
of the Makololo, and only a short distance from our wagon-stand of 1851
(lat. 18d 20' S., long. 23d 50' E.).
Chapter 9.
Reception at Linyanti - The court Herald - Sekeletu obtains
the Chieftainship from his Sister - Mpepe's Plot - Slave-trading Mambari
- Their sudden Flight - Sekeletu narrowly escapes Assassination -
Execution of Mpepe - The Courts of Law - Mode of trying Offenses -
Sekeletu's Reason for not learning to read the Bible -
The Disposition made of the Wives of a deceased Chief -
Makololo Women - They work but little - Employ Serfs -
Their Drink, Dress, and Ornaments - Public Religious Services in the Kotla
- Unfavorable Associations of the place - Native Doctors -
Proposals to teach the Makololo to read - Sekeletu's Present -
Reason for accepting it - Trading in Ivory - Accidental Fire -
Presents for Sekeletu - Two Breeds of native Cattle -
Ornamenting the Cattle - The Women and the Looking-glass -
Mode of preparing the Skins of Oxen for Mantles and for Shields -
Throwing the Spear.
The whole population of Linyanti, numbering between six and seven
thousand souls, turned out en masse to see the wagons in motion.
They had never witnessed the phenomenon before, we having
on the former occasion departed by night.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 78 of 295
Words from 79909 to 80938
of 306638
