Mbia, Who Was A Bit
Of A Wag, Laughingly Exclaimed In Broken English, "Oh, Kebrabasa
Good, Very Good; No Let Shippee Up To Sekeletu, Too Muchee Work,
Cuttee Woodyee, Cuttee Woodyee:
Kebrabasa good." It is currently
reported, and commonly believed, that once upon a time a Portuguese
named Jose Pedra,
- By the natives called Nyamatimbira, - chief, or
capitao mor, of Zumbo, a man of large enterprise and small humanity,-
-being anxious to ascertain if Kebrabasa could be navigated, made two
slaves fast to a canoe, and launched it from Chicova into Kebrabasa,
in order to see if it would come out at the other end. As neither
slaves nor canoe ever appeared again, his Excellency concluded that
Kebrabasa was unnavigable. A trader had a large canoe swept away by
a sudden rise of the river, and it was found without damage below;
but the most satisfactory information was that of old Sandia, who
asserted that in flood all Kebrabasa became quite smooth, and he had
often seen it so.
We emerged from the thirty-five or forty miles of Kebrabasa hills
into the Chicova plains on the 7th of June, 1860, having made short
marches all the way. The cold nights caused some of our men to cough
badly, and colds in this country almost invariably become fever. The
Zambesi suddenly expands at Chicova, and assumes the size and
appearance it has at Tette. Near this point we found a large seam of
coal exposed in the left bank.
We met with native travellers occasionally. Those on a long journey
carry with them a sleeping-mat and wooden pillow, cooking-pot and bag
of meal, pipe and tobacco-pouch, a knife, bow, and arrows, and two
small sticks, of from two to three feet in length, for making fire,
when obliged to sleep away from human habitations. Dry wood is
always abundant, and they get fire by the following method. A notch
is cut in one of the sticks, which, with a close-grained outside, has
a small core of pith, and this notched stick is laid horizontally on
a knife-blade on the ground; the operator squatting, places his great
toes on each end to keep all steady, and taking the other wand which
is of very hard wood cut to a blunt point, fits it into the notch at
right angles; the upright wand is made to spin rapidly backwards and
forwards between the palms of the hands, drill fashion, and at the
same time is pressed downwards; the friction, in the course of a
minute or so, ignites portions of the pith of the notched stick,
which, rolling over like live charcoal on to the knife-blade, are
lifted into a handful of fine dry grass, and carefully blown, by
waving backwards and forwards in the air. It is hard work for the
hands to procure fire by this process, as the vigorous drilling and
downward pressure requisite soon blister soft palms.
Having now entered a country where lions were numerous, our men began
to pay greater attention to the arrangements of the camp at night.
As they are accustomed to do with their chiefs, they place the white
men in the centre; Kanyata, his men, and the two donkeys, camp on our
right; Tuba Mokoro's party of Bashubia are in front; Masakasa, and
Sininyane's body of Batoka, on the left; and in the rear six Tette
men have their fires.
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