The Grass, As Already Remarked, Is Excellent
For Cattle.
One species, with leaves having finely serrated edges,
and of a reddish-brown colour, we noticed our men eating:
It tastes
exactly like liquorice-root, and is named kezu-kezu. The tsetse,
known to the Batoka by the name "ndoka," does not exist here, though
buffaloes and elephants abound.
A small trap in the path, baited with a mouse, to catch spotted cats
(F. Genetta), is usually the first indication that we are drawing
near to a village; but when we get within the sounds of pounding
corn, cockcrowing, or the merry shouts of children at play, we know
that the huts are but a few yards off, though the trees conceal them
from view. We reached, on the 4th of August, Moachemba, the first of
the Batoka villages which now owe allegiance to Sekeletu, and could
see distinctly with the naked eye, in the great valley spread out
before us, the columns of vapour rising from the Victoria Falls,
though upwards of 20 miles distant. We were informed that, the rains
having failed this year, the corn crops had been lost, and great
scarcity and much hunger prevailed from Sesheke to Linyanti. Some of
the reports which the men had heard from the Batoka of the hills
concerning their families, were here confirmed. Takelang's wife had
been killed by Mashotlane, the headman at the Falls, on a charge, as
usual, of witchcraft. Inchikola's two wives, believing him to be
dead, had married again; and Masakasa was intensely disgusted to hear
that two years ago his friends, upon a report of his death, threw his
shield over the Falls, slaughtered all his oxen, and held a species
of wild Irish wake, in honour of his memory:
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