We never could, by waving a red
handkerchief, according to the prescription, induce them to venture
near to us. It may therefore be that the red colour excites their
fury only when wounded or hotly pursued. Herds of lechee or lechwe
now enliven the meadows; and they and their younger brother, the
graceful poku, smaller, and of a rounder contour, race together
towards the grassy fens. We venture to call the poku after the late
Major Vardon, a noble-hearted African traveller; but fully anticipate
that some aspiring Nimrod will prefer that his own name should go
down to posterity on the back of this buck.
Midway between Tabacheu and the Great Falls the streams begin to flow
westward. On the other side they begin to flow east. Large round
masses of granite, somewhat like old castles, tower aloft about the
Kalomo. The country is an elevated plateau, and our men knew and
named the different plains as we passed them by.
On the 13th we met a party from Sekeletu, who was now at Sesheke.
Our approach had been reported, and they had been sent to ask the
Doctor what the price of a horse ought to be; and what he said, that
they were to give and no more.
