They Plait Their Hair In Three-Fold Cords,
And Lay Them Carefully Down Around The Sides Of The Head.
They
Are quite as dark as the Barotse, but have among them
a number of half-castes, with their peculiar yellow
Sickly hue.
On inquiring why they had fled on my approach to Linyanti, they let me know
that they had a vivid idea of the customs of English cruisers on the coast.
They showed also their habits in their own country by digging up and eating,
even here where large game abounds, the mice and moles which infest
the country. The half-castes, or native Portuguese, could all read and write,
and the head of the party, if not a real Portuguese, had European hair,
and, influenced probably by the letter of recommendation which I held
from the Chevalier Duprat, his most faithful majesty's Arbitrator
in the British and Portuguese Mixed Commission at Cape Town,
was evidently anxious to show me all the kindness in his power.
These persons I feel assured were the first individuals of Portuguese blood
who ever saw the Zambesi in the centre of the country, and they had reached it
two years after our discovery in 1851.
The town or mound of Santuru's mother was shown to me; this was
the first symptom of an altered state of feeling with regard to the female sex
that I had observed. There are few or no cases of women being elevated
to the headships of towns further south. The Barotse also showed some
relics of their chief, which evinced a greater amount of the religious feeling
than I had ever known displayed among Bechuanas. His more recent capital,
Lilonda, built, too, on an artificial mound, is covered with
different kinds of trees, transplanted when young by himself.
They form a grove on the end of the mound, in which are to be seen
various instruments of iron just in the state he left them.
One looks like the guard of a basket-hilted sword; another has
an upright stem of the metal, on which are placed branches worked at the ends
into miniature axes, hoes, and spears; on these he was accustomed
to present offerings, according as he desired favors to be conferred in
undertaking hewing, agriculture, or fighting. The people still living there,
in charge of these articles, were supported by presents from the chief;
and the Makololo sometimes follow the example. This was the nearest approach
to a priesthood I met. When I asked them to part with one of these relics,
they replied, "Oh no, he refuses." "Who refuses?" "Santuru,"
was their reply, showing their belief in a future state of existence.
After explaining to them, as I always did when opportunity offered,
the nature of true worship, and praying with them in the simple form
which needs no offering from the worshiper except that of the heart,
and planting some fruit-tree seeds in the grove, we departed.
Another incident, which occurred at the confluence of the Leeba and Leeambye,
may be mentioned here, as showing a more vivid perception
of the existence of spiritual beings, and greater proneness to worship
than among the Bechuanas. Having taken lunar observations in the morning,
I was waiting for a meridian altitude of the sun for the latitude;
my chief boatman was sitting by, in order to pack up the instruments
as soon as I had finished; there was a large halo, about 20 Deg. in diameter,
round the sun; thinking that the humidity of the atmosphere,
which this indicated, might betoken rain, I asked him if his experience
did not lead him to the same view. "Oh no," replied he;
"it is the Barimo (gods or departed spirits), who have called a picho;
don't you see they have the Lord (sun) in the centre?"
While still at Naliele I walked out to Katongo (lat. 15d 16' 33"),
on the ridge which bounds the valley of the Barotse in that direction,
and found it covered with trees. It is only the commencement
of the lands which are never inundated; their gentle rise
from the dead level of the valley much resembles the edge of the Desert
in the valley of the Nile. But here the Banyeti have fine gardens, and raise
great quantities of maize, millet, and native corn (`Holcus sorghum'),
of large grain and beautifully white. They grow, also,
yams, sugar-cane, the Egyptian arum, sweet potato (`Convolulus batata'),
two kinds of manioc or cassava (`Jatropha manihot' and `J. utilissima',
a variety containing scarcely any poison), besides pumpkins, melons,
beans, and ground-nuts. These, with plenty of fish in the river,
its branches and lagoons, wild fruits and water-fowl,
always make the people refer to the Barotse as the land of plenty.
The scene from the ridge, on looking back, was beautiful. One can not see
the western side of the valley in a cloudy day, such as that was
when we visited the stockade, but we could see the great river glancing out
at different points, and fine large herds of cattle quietly grazing
on the green succulent herbage, among numbers of cattle-stations and villages
which are dotted over the landscape. Leches in hundreds fed securely
beside them, for they have learned only to keep out of bow-shot,
or two hundred yards. When guns come into a country the animals soon learn
their longer range, and begin to run at a distance of five hundred yards.
I imagined the slight elevation (Katongo) might be healthy, but was informed
that no part of this region is exempt from fever. When the waters begin
to retire from this valley, such masses of decayed vegetation and mud
are exposed to the torrid sun that even the natives suffer severely
from attacks of fever. The grass is so rank in its growth that one
can not see the black alluvial soil of the bottom of this periodical lake.
Even when the grass falls down in winter, or is "laid" by its own weight,
one is obliged to lift the feet so high, to avoid being tripped up by it,
as to make walking excessively fatiguing.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 95 of 295
Words from 97746 to 98775
of 306638
