This Was, Of Course, Mere Characteristic Politeness, As He Was
Perfectly Aware That Every Drop Had Been Swallowed; So We Proceeded
On To The Kafue, Or Kafuje, Accompanied By The Most Intelligent Of
His Headmen.
A high ridge, just before we reached the confluence,
commands a splendid view of the two great rivers, and the rich
country beyond.
Behind, on the north and east, is the high mountain-
range, along whose base we have been travelling; the whole range is
covered with trees, which appear even on the prominent peaks,
Chiarapela, Morindi, and Chiava; at this last the chain bends away to
the N.W., and we could see the distant mountains where the chief,
Semalembue, gained all our hearts in 1856.
On the 9th of July we tried to send Semalembue a present, but the
people here refused to incur the responsibility of carrying it. We,
who have the art of writing, cannot realize the danger one incurs of
being accused of purloining a portion of goods sent from one person
to another, when the carrier cannot prove that he delivered all
committed to his charge. Rumours of a foray having been made, either
by Makololo or Batoka, as far as the fork of the Kafue, were received
here by our men with great indignation, as it looked as if the
marauders were shutting up the country, which they had been trying so
much to open. Below the junction of the rivers, on a shallow
sandbank, lay a large herd of hippopotami, their bodies out of the
water, like masses of black rock. Kambadzo's island, called
Nyangalule, a name which occurs again at the mouth of the Zambesi,
has many choice Motsikiri (Trachelia) trees on it; and four very
conspicuous stately palms growing out of a single stem. The Kafue
reminds us a little of the Shire, flowing between steep banks, with
fertile land on both sides. It is a smaller river, and has less
current. Here it seems to come from the west. The headman of the
village, near which we encamped, brought a present of meal, fowls,
and sweet potatoes. They have both the red and white varieties of
this potato. We have, on several occasions during this journey, felt
the want of vegetables, in a disagreeable craving which our diet of
meat and native meal could not satisfy. It became worse and worse
till we got a meal of potatoes, which allayed it at once. A great
scarcity of vegetables prevails in these parts of Africa. The
natives collect several kinds of wild plants in the woods, which they
use no doubt for the purpose of driving off cravings similar to those
we experienced.
Owing to the strength of the wind, and the cranky state of the
canoes, it was late in the afternoon of the 11th before our party was
ferried over the Kafue. After crossing, we were in the Bawe country.
Fishhooks here, of native workmanship, were observed to have barbs
like the European hooks: elsewhere the point of the hook is merely
bent in towards the shank, to have the same effect in keeping on the
fish as the barb. We slept near a village a short distance above the
ford. The people here are of Batoka origin, the same as many of our
men, and call themselves Batonga (independents), or Balengi, and
their language only differs slightly from that of the Bakoa, who live
between the two rivers Kafue and Loangwa. The paramount chief of the
district lives to the west of this place, and is called Nchomokela -
an hereditary title: the family burying-place is on a small hill
near this village. The women salute us by clapping their hands and
lullilooing as we enter and leave a village, and the men, as they
think, respectfully clap their hands on their hips. Immense crops of
mapira (holcus sorghum) are raised; one species of it forms a natural
bend on the seed-stalk, so that the massive ear hangs down. The
grain was heaped up on wooden stages, and so was a variety of other
products. The men are skilful hunters, and kill elephants and
buffaloes with long heavy spears. We halted a few minutes on the
morning of the 12th July, opposite the narrow island of Sikakoa,
which has a village on its lower end. We were here told that
Moselekatse's chief town is a month's distance from this place. They
had heard, moreover, that the English had come to Moselekatse, and
told him it was wrong to kill men; and he had replied that he was
born to kill people, but would drop the habit; and, since the English
came, he had sent out his men, not to kill as of yore, but to collect
tribute of cloth and ivory. This report referred to the arrival of
the Rev. R. Moffat, of Kuruman, who, we afterwards found, had
established a mission. The statement is interesting as showing that,
though imperfectly expressed, the purport of the missionaries'
teaching had travelled, in a short time, over 300 miles, and we know
not how far the knowledge of the English operations on the coast
spread inland.
When abreast of the high wooded island Kalabi we came in contact with
one of the game-laws of the country, which has come down from the
most ancient times. An old buffalo crossed the path a few yards in
front of us; our guide threw his small spear at its hip, and it was
going off scarcely hurt, when three rifle balls knocked it over. "It
is mine," said the guide. He had wounded it first, and the
established native game-law is that the animal belongs to the man who
first draws blood; the two legs on one side, by the same law,
belonged to us for killing it. This beast was very old, blind of one
eye, and scabby; the horns, mere stumps, not a foot long, must have
atrophied, when by age he lost the strength distinctive of his sex;
some eighteen or twenty inches of horn could not well be worn down by
mere rubbing against the trees.
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