To The Northeast There Are Extensive Plains
Destitute Of Trees, But Covered With Grass, And In Some Places It Is
Marshy.
The whole of the country to the north of the Zambesi
is asserted to be very much more fertile
Than that to the south.
The Maravi, for instance, raise sweet potatoes of immense size,
but when these are planted on the southern bank they soon degenerate.
The root of this plant (`Convolvulus batata') does not keep more than
two or three days, unless it is cut into thin slices and dried in the sun,
but the Maravi manage to preserve them for months by digging a pit
and burying them therein inclosed in wood-ashes. Unfortunately,
the Maravi, and all the tribes on that side of the country,
are at enmity with the Portuguese, and, as they practice night attacks
in their warfare, it is dangerous to travel among them.
29TH. I was most sincerely thankful to find myself
on the south bank of the Zambesi, and, having nothing else,
I sent back one of my two spoons and a shirt as a thank-offering to Mpende.
The different head men along this river act very much in concert,
and if one refuses passage they all do, uttering the sage remark,
"If so-and-so did not lend his canoes, he must have had some good reason."
The next island we came to was that of a man named Mozinkwa.
Here we were detained some days by continuous rains, and thought
we observed the confirmation of the Bakwain theory of rains.
A double tier of clouds floated quickly away to the west, and as soon
as they began to come in an opposite direction the rains poured down.
The inhabitants who live in a dry region like that of Kolobeng
are nearly all as weather-wise as the rain-makers, and any one
living among them for any length of time becomes as much interested
in the motions of the clouds as they are themselves.
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