The Makololo Had
Once Dispossessed The Batoka Of Kalunda, But We Could Not See The
Fissure, Or Whatever It Is, That Rendered It A Place Of Security, As
It Was On The Southern Bank.
The crack of the Great Falls was here
continued:
The rocks are the same as further up, but perhaps less
weather-worn - and now partially stratified in great thick masses.
The country through which we were travelling was covered with a
cindery-looking volcanic tufa, and might be called "Katakaumena."
The description we received of the Moamba Falls seemed to promise
something grand. They were said to send up "smoke" in the wet
season, like Mosi-oa-tunya; but when we looked down into the cleft,
in which the dark-green narrow river still rolls, we saw, about 800
or 1000 feet below us, what, after Mosi-oa-tunya, seemed two
insignificant cataracts. It was evident that Pitsane, observing our
delight at the Victoria Falls, wished to increase our pleasure by a
second wonder. One Mosi-oa-tunya, however, is quite enough for a
continent.
We had now an opportunity of seeing more of the Batoka, than we had
on the highland route to our north. They did not wait till the
evening before offering food to the strangers. The aged wife of the
headman of a hamlet, where we rested at midday, at once kindled a
fire, and put on the cooking-pot to make porridge. Both men and
women are to be distinguished by greater roundness of feature than
the other natives, and the custom of knocking out the upper front
teeth gives at once a distinctive character to the face.
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