His Son, A Boy Of
Ten, Had Charge Of The Establishment During His Father's Absence.
According To Makololo Ideas, The Cattle-Post Is The Proper School In
Which Sons Should Be Brought Up.
Here they receive the right sort of
education - the knowledge of pasture and how to manage cattle.
Strong easterly winds blow daily from noon till midnight, and
continue till the October or November rains set in. Whirlwinds,
raising huge pillars of smoke from burning grass and weeds, are
common in the forenoon. We were nearly caught in an immense one. It
crossed about twenty yards in front of us, the wind apparently
rushing into it from all points of the compass. Whirling round and
round in great eddies, it swept up hundreds of feet into the air a
continuous dense dark cloud of the black pulverized soil, mixed with
dried grass, off the plain. Herds of the new antelopes, lechwe, and
poku, with the kokong, or gnus, and zebras stood gazing at us as we
passed. The mirage lifted them at times halfway to the clouds, and
twisted them and the clumps of palms into strange unearthly forms.
The extensive and rich level plains by the banks, along the sides of
which we paddled, would support a vast population, and might be
easily irrigated from the Zambesi. If watered, they would yield
crops all the year round, and never suffer loss by drought. The
hippopotamus is killed here with long lance-like spears. We saw two
men, in a light canoe, stealing noiselessly down on one of these
animals thought to be asleep; but it was on the alert, and they had
quickly to retreat.
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