Several Days Were Spent In Collecting Canoes From Different Villages
On The River, Which We Now Learned Is Called By The Whole Of The Barotse
The Liambai Or Leeambye.
This we could not ascertain on our first visit,
and, consequently, called the river after the town "Sesheke".
This
Term Sesheke means "white sand-banks", many of which exist at this part.
There is another village in the valley of the Barotse likewise called Sesheke,
and for the same reason; but the term Leeambye means "the large river",
or the river PAR EXCELLENCE. Luambeji, Luambesi, Ambezi, Ojimbesi,
and Zambesi, etc., are names applied to it at different parts of its course,
according to the dialect spoken, and all possess a similar signification,
and express the native idea of this magnificent stream being
the main drain of the country.
In order to assist in the support of our large party, and at the same time
to see the adjacent country, I went several times, during our stay,
to the north of the village for game. The country is covered
with clumps of beautiful trees, among which fine open glades stretch away
in every direction; when the river is in flood these are inundated,
but the tree-covered elevated spots are much more numerous here than in
the country between the Chobe and the Leeambye. The soil is dark loam,
as it is every where on spots reached by the inundation,
while among the trees it is sandy, and not covered so densely with grass
as elsewhere. A sandy ridge covered with trees, running parallel to,
and about eight miles from the river, is the limit of the inundation
on the north; there are large tracts of this sandy forest in that direction,
till you come to other districts of alluvial soil and fewer trees.
The latter soil is always found in the vicinity of rivers
which either now overflow their banks annually, or formerly did so.
The people enjoy rain in sufficient quantity to raise very large supplies
of grain and ground-nuts.
This district contains great numbers of a small antelope named Tianyane,
unknown in the south. It stands about eighteen inches high,
is very graceful in its movements, and utters a cry of alarm
not unlike that of the domestic fowl; it is of a brownish-red color
on the sides and back, with the belly and lower part of the tail white;
it is very timid, but the maternal affection that the little thing
bears to its young will often induce it to offer battle
even to a man approaching it. When the young one is too tender
to run about with the dam, she puts one foot on the prominence
about the seventh cervical vertebra, or withers; the instinct of the young
enables it to understand that it is now required to kneel down,
and to remain quite still till it hears the bleating of its dam.
If you see an otherwise gregarious she-antelope separated from the herd,
and going alone any where, you may be sure she has laid her little one
to sleep in some cozy spot. The color of the hair in the young
is better adapted for assimilating it with the ground
than that of the older animals, which do not need to be screened
from the observation of birds of prey. I observed the Arabs at Aden,
when making their camels kneel down, press the thumb on the withers
in exactly the same way the antelopes do with their young;
probably they have been led to the custom by seeing this plan adopted
by the gazelle of the Desert.
Great numbers of buffaloes, zebras, tsessebes, tahaetsi, and eland, or pohu,
grazed undisturbed on these plains, so that very little exertion was required
to secure a fair supply of meat for the party during the necessary delay.
Hunting on foot, as all those who have engaged in it in this country
will at once admit, is very hard work indeed. The heat of the sun by day
is so great, even in winter, as it now was, that, had there been any one
on whom I could have thrown the task, he would have been most welcome
to all the sport the toil is supposed to impart. But the Makololo
shot so badly, that, in order to save my powder, I was obliged to go myself.
We shot a beautiful cow-eland, standing in the shade of a fine tree.
It was evident that she had lately had her calf killed by a lion,
for there were five long deep scratches on both sides of her hind-quarters,
as if she had run to the rescue of her calf, and the lion, leaving it,
had attacked herself, but was unable to pull her down.
When lying on the ground, the milk flowing from the large udder
showed that she must have been seeking the shade, from the distress
its non-removal in the natural manner caused. She was a beautiful creature,
and Lebeole, a Makololo gentleman who accompanied me, speaking in reference
to its size and beauty, said, "Jesus ought to have given us these
instead of cattle." It was a new, undescribed variety of this
splendid antelope. It was marked with narrow white bands across the body,
exactly like those of the koodoo, and had a black patch
of more than a handbreadth on the outer side of the fore-arm.
Chapter 12.
Procure Canoes and ascend the Leeambye - Beautiful Islands -
Winter Landscape - Industry and Skill of the Banyeti -
Rapids - Falls of Gonye - Tradition - Annual Inundations -
Fertility of the great Barotse Valley - Execution of two Conspirators -
The Slave-dealer's Stockade - Naliele, the Capital,
built on an artificial Mound - Santuru, a great Hunter -
The Barotse Method of commemorating any remarkable Event -
Better Treatment of Women - More religious Feeling - Belief in
a future State, and in the Existence of spiritual Beings - Gardens -
Fish, Fruit, and Game - Proceed to the Limits of the Barotse Country -
Sekeletu provides Rowers and a Herald - The River and Vicinity -
Hippopotamus-hunters - No healthy Location - Determine to go to Loanda -
Buffaloes, Elands, and Lions above Libonta - Interview with the Mambari -
Two Arabs from Zanzibar - Their Opinion of the Portuguese and the English
- Reach the Town of Ma-Sekeletu - Joy of the People
at the first Visit of their Chief - Return to Sesheke - Heathenism.
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