The Tsetse Inhabits The
Trees Which Bound The Pasture-Land On The West; So, Should The
Herdsman Forget His Duty, The Cattle Straying Might Be Entirely Lost.
The Women Of This Village Were More Numerous Than The Men, The Result
Of The Chief's Marauding.
The Batoko wife of Sima came up from the
Falls, to welcome her husband back, bringing a present of the best
fruits of the country.
Her husband was the only one of the party who
had brought a wife from Tette, namely, the girl whom he obtained from
Chisaka for his feats of dancing. According to our ideas, his first
wife could hardly have been pleased at seeing the second and younger
one; but she took her away home with her, while the husband remained
with us. In going down to the Fall village we met several of the
real Makololo. They are lighter in colour than the other tribes,
being of a rich warm brown; and they speak in a slow deliberate
manner, distinctly pronouncing every word. On reaching the village
opposite Kalai, we had an interview with the Makololo headman,
Mashotlane: he came to the shed in which we were seated, a little
boy carrying his low three-legged stool before him: on this he sat
down with becoming dignity, looked round him for a few seconds, then
at us, and, saluting us with "Rumela" (good morning, or hail), he
gave us some boiled hippopotamus meat, took a piece himself, and then
handed the rest to his attendants, who soon ate it up. He defended
his forays on the ground that, when he went to collect tribute, the
Batoka attacked him, and killed some of his attendants. The excuses
made for their little wars are often the very same as those made by
Caesar in his "Commentaries." Few admit, like old Moshobotwane, that
they fought because they had the power, and a fair prospect of
conquering. We found here Pitsane, who had accompanied the Doctor to
St. Paul de Loanda. He had been sent by Sekeletu to purchase three
horses from a trading party of Griquas from Kuruman, who charged nine
large tusks apiece for very wretched animals.
In the evening, when all was still, one of our men, Takelang, fired
his musket, and cried out, "I am weeping for my wife: my court is
desolate: I have no home;" and then uttered a loud wail of anguish.
We proceeded next morning, 9th August, 1860, to see the Victoria
Falls. Mosi-oa-tunya is the Makololo name and means smoke sounding;
Seongo or Chongwe, meaning the Rainbow, or the place of the Rainbow,
was the more ancient term they bore. We embarked in canoes,
belonging to Tuba Mokoro, "smasher of canoes," an ominous name; but
he alone, it seems, knew the medicine which insures one against
shipwreck in the rapids above the Falls. For some miles the river
was smooth and tranquil, and we glided pleasantly over water clear as
crystal, and past lovely islands densely covered with a tropical
vegetation.
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