A Great
Scarcity Of Vegetables Prevails In These Parts Of Africa.
The
natives collect several kinds of wild plants in the woods, which they
use no doubt for the purpose of driving off cravings similar to those
we experienced.
Owing to the strength of the wind, and the cranky state of the
canoes, it was late in the afternoon of the 11th before our party was
ferried over the Kafue. After crossing, we were in the Bawe country.
Fishhooks here, of native workmanship, were observed to have barbs
like the European hooks: elsewhere the point of the hook is merely
bent in towards the shank, to have the same effect in keeping on the
fish as the barb. We slept near a village a short distance above the
ford. The people here are of Batoka origin, the same as many of our
men, and call themselves Batonga (independents), or Balengi, and
their language only differs slightly from that of the Bakoa, who live
between the two rivers Kafue and Loangwa. The paramount chief of the
district lives to the west of this place, and is called Nchomokela -
an hereditary title: the family burying-place is on a small hill
near this village. The women salute us by clapping their hands and
lullilooing as we enter and leave a village, and the men, as they
think, respectfully clap their hands on their hips. Immense crops of
mapira (holcus sorghum) are raised; one species of it forms a natural
bend on the seed-stalk, so that the massive ear hangs down.
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