The Evening Sun, From
A Hot Yellow Sky, Imparts A Sulphureous Hue, And Gives One The
Impression That The Yawning Gulf Might Resemble The Mouth Of The
Bottomless Pit.
No bird sits and sings on the branches of the grove
of perpetual showers, or ever builds its nest there.
We saw
hornbills and flocks of little black weavers flying across from the
mainland to the islands, and from the islands to the points of the
promontories and back again, but they uniformly shunned the region of
perpetual rain, occupied by the evergreen grove. The sunshine,
elsewhere in this land so overpowering, never penetrates the deep
gloom of that shade. In the presence of the strange Mosi-oa-tunya,
we can sympathize with those who, when the world was young, peopled
earth, air, and river, with beings not of mortal form. Sacred to
what deity would be this awful chasm and that dark grove, over which
hovers an ever-abiding "pillar of cloud"?
The ancient Batoka chieftains used Kazeruka, now Garden Island, and
Boaruka, the island further west, also on the lip of the Falls, as
sacred spots for worshipping the Deity. It is no wonder that under
the cloudy columns, and near the brilliant rainbows, with the
ceaseless roar of the cataract, with the perpetual flow, as if
pouring forth from the hand of the Almighty, their souls should be
filled with reverential awe. It inspired wonder in the native mind
throughout the interior. Among the first questions asked by
Sebituane of Mr. Oswell and Dr. Livingstone, in 1851, was, "Have you
any smoke soundings in your country," and "what causes the smoke to
rise for ever so high out of water?" In that year its fame was heard
200 miles off, and it was approached within two days; but it was seen
by no European till 1855, when Dr. Livingstone visited it on his way
to the East Coast.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 223 of 505
Words from 60185 to 60504
of 136856
