FIRST VISIT TO THE MARUTSE KINGDOM.
My reception by Sepopo--The libeko--Sepopo’s pilfering
propensities--The royal residence--History of the
Marutse-Mabunda empire--The various tribes and their
districts--Position of the vassal tribes--The Sesuto
language--Discovery of a culprit--Portuguese traders at Sepopo’s
court--Arrangements for exploring the country--Construction
of New Sesheke--Fire in Old Sesheke--Culture of the tribes
of the Marutse-Mabunda kingdom--Their superstition--Rule of
succession--Resources of the sovereign--Style of building--The
royal courtyard--Musical instruments--War-drums--The kishi
dance--Return to Impalera and Panda ma Tenka--A lion adventure.
[Illustration: IN THE PAPYRUS THICKETS.]
[Illustration:
_Vol. II._ RECEPTION AT SEPOPO’S.
_Page 137._]
A crowd of natives in leather and cotton aprons announced that the
king was waiting to receive me, and after proceeding another 200
yards I stood face to face with his majesty. He was a man of about
five-and-thirty, dressed in European style, with an English hat upon
his head, decorated with a fine white ostrich feather. He had a broad,
open countenance, large eyes, and a good-humoured expression that
betrayed nothing of the tyrant that he really was. Advancing to meet me
with a light and easy tread, he smiled pleasantly as he held out his
hand, and after greeting Blockley in a similar fashion, he bestowed a
nod of recognition on our servant April. He was accompanied by some
of the principal court-officials, only one of whom wore trousers; two
others had woollen garments fastened across their backs, whilst the
rest were only to be distinguished from the general mob by the number
of bracelets on their arms. The most noticeable part of the procession
was the royal band; on either side of the king were myrimba-players
bringing out the most excruciating sounds with a pair of short
drumsticks from a keyboard of calabashes suspended from their shoulders
by a strap; these were preceded by men with huge tubular drums, upon
which they played with their fingers, accompanying the strains with
their voices. Followed by this motley throng, we were conducted to
a tall mimosa, where we were met by a man in European costume, whom
Sepopo introduced to me as Jan Mahura, a Bechuana, who had resided
three years with him as interpreter.
Blockley was able to dispense with the services of this corpulent,
sly-looking individual, but to me he proceeded formally to introduce
his Majesty as “Sepopo, Morena of the Zambesi.” The king then seated
himself upon a little wooden stool that a servant had been carrying for
him, and made signs to us to be seated on the ground; but seeing that
I hesitated about taking such a position in my best suit of black, he
sent for two trusses of dry grass upon which Blockley and I had to sit
down without more ado.
Sepopo began to besiege Blockley with question after question, and as
I was not sufficiently versed in the Sesuto-Serotse dialect to follow
their conversation, I entertained myself by criticizing the company.
Presently the crowd opened to admit a young man, preceded by a herald,
and carrying a great wooden dish which, after making an obeisance, he
placed on the open space between us and the king. The odour was quite
sufficient to make us aware that the dish contained broiled fish.
Sepopo picked out a fish at random and handed it to the chiefs Kapella
and Mashoku, who had to eat a portion of it; and having thus satisfied
himself that the food was not poisoned, he handed one each to Blockley
and me, and took another himself. Our fingers had to do duty in the
absence of forks, the mighty sovereign of many and many a thousand
miles setting us the example in a very dexterous fashion. We had eaten
nothing since breakfast, and were consequently by no means disinclined
to make a good meal now; but the etiquette of the country did not
permit us to eat more than half a fish, and we were expected to pass
over the rest to the chiefs who were sitting next us, they in their
turn taking a bit and handing the remnant to their neighbours. Ten fish
constituted the whole repast, and the servants were permitted to pick
the heads.
The Marutse excel in their methods of dressing fish, some being stewed
in their own oil, and others, after they have been dried in the sun,
being broiled on ashes. The kinds that are stewed are those known among
the Zambesi tribes as tshi-mo, tshi-gatshimshi, and tshi-mashona, all
rapacious fish, except the hard-lipped inquisi, being disliked by them.
I rarely saw them eat the common flat-headed sheat-fish; they avoid it
chiefly because its flesh is so often perforated by a parasite, a sort
of spiral worm about an inch long, not unlike a trichina. A great many
fish, after being sun-dried, are kept for months, and then packed in
baskets and sent to the north for sale.
When we had finished our repast, several servants brought bowls of
water, with which the inner circle were expected to moisten their
lips. After our primitive method of feeding, it was quite necessary
that we should get rid of the grease from our fingers; and to assist
us in this, one of the servants brought a platter containing about
twenty dirty little green balls of the size of a walnut. The king and
the courtiers each took one and rubbed it over their hands, which they
afterwards washed. When it came to my turn to help myself to one of the
balls, my curiosity to know of what it consisted provoked very general
amusement. By the king’s direction Jan Mahura, the interpreter, called
out to me, “Smell them, sir,” and I was at once aware that they were
of the nature of soap. After washing, Blockley and I dried our hands
upon our pocket-handkerchiefs, but Sepopo and his officers scraped the
moisture off their fingers with their “libekos.” The outer ranks of the
assembly merely rubbed their hands on the dry sand.
The libeko used by the Bantu tribes in the place of our
pocket-handkerchief is a miniature shovel made of very different sizes,
being from half an inch to an inch wide, but varying from two inches
to ten inches in length. It is usually attached to a small strap or
a chain of grass or beads, and its effect is not only to widen the
nostrils, but to disfigure the countenance generally.
As the afternoon was advancing, the king rose, and attended by his
vocal and instrumental performers, led the way to the landing-place,
where we all embarked in three canoes for an airing on the water. We
were not long upon the main stream before we turned into a lagoon,
whence, after about a quarter of an hour, we entered another side
lagoon, which brought us to the landing-place of Old Sesheke. This
town, which the king was now leaving for his new settlement, was on
the border of a sandy wood, and scarcely twenty-five feet above the
valley. Close to it, built of wood or reeds, were the storehouses in
which Westbeech put his goods until Sepopo was ready to pay for them in
ivory. The courtyard contained three huts, one occupied by Westbeech’s
cook, one by his other servants, and a third used as his kitchen.
Behind his own little house, and between it and the hedge, stood a
fourth hut, about five feet high and seven feet in diameter, similar in
shape to a Koranna hut, with a doorway that could only be entered on
all fours. This was assigned to me during my residence in the king’s
domains.
[Illustration: PORT OF SHESHEKE.
_Vol. II._ _Page 140_.]
Before I took possession of my mansion, I was invited, Blockley with
me, to join the king at supper. He was in a little cemented courtyard
sitting on a mat; we were accommodated in a similar way, and
conducted to our seats upon his left hand, the queen and some officials
being placed upon his right. The meal consisted of boiled eland flesh
served upon plates, and this time we found ourselves provided with
knives and forks, which had been introduced by the traders from the
west coast. As sauce to the meat we were offered manza, a transparent
sort of meal-pap, that upon analyzing, I afterwards ascertained was
very nutritious. After supper some impote (honey-beer) was brought in a
round-bodied gourd-shell with a twisted neck, and poured out into large
tin mugs that had been a present from Westbeech. The butler, after
clapping his hands, sat down in the open space in front of the king and
drank off the first goblet; the king took the next, and, after sipping
it, passed it to the queen on his left, and then received it back from
her and offered it to us; although several of the chiefs that were
present were allowed to partake of the beverage, no one but ourselves
was permitted to put his lips to the royal cup. When the drinking was
over, the king rose from his seat, took off his boots, and gave them to
the waiting-maid who had brought in the meat, and retired to his house,
though not until he had invited me to breakfast with him in the morning.
I had been asleep in my new quarters for about two hours, when I was
roused by a noise in the small front room of the storehouse, and
looking out I saw a glimmer of light, by which I could distinctly make
out that Sepopo and some of his people were rummaging amongst the
goods that Blockley had just deposited there; after waiting a little
longer, I saw Sepopo come out and walk off with a waggonlantern that
Blockley had refused to give him during the day. It was a transaction
that opened my eyes to the way which the Marutse king had of getting
possession of any articles that might take his fancy.
Before concluding my account of my first day at Sesheke, I may mention
a little incident that occurred while we were sitting drinking the
impote. Four men arrived laden with ivory, and after depositing the
load of tusks in the middle of the enclosure, they clapped their
hands and prostrated themselves five times with their foreheads to
the ground, crying out, “Shangwe! Shangwe!” They then retired quite
into the rear of all the rest, to remain till the meal was over. When
the king summoned them, they crept forward, and kept clapping their
hands very gently all the time the king was speaking to them, and when
he ceased they proceeded with great volubility to recount all the
particulars of the hunting-excursion from which they had returned. They
were much commended, and told to come in the morning to receive some
ammunition and their proper reward. The ivory was crown property, and
the guns used by the hunters were only lent to them, and were liable to
be recalled at any moment at the royal pleasure.
It was quite customary for all white men, before entering Impalera, to
send the king a present by way of securing a pass from the banks of the
Chobe to his territory. No such impost, however, was demanded from me.
It was entirely a voluntary act on my part, that I made an offering of
a Snider breech-loader and 200 cartridges.
Unlike supper, breakfast was not served in the open air, but inside the
house. The long grass-hut, similar to a gabled roof some eight feet
high, was divided by a partition into two compartments, the walls of
the front one, in which we took our meal, being decorated with guns,
Marutse weapons, elephants’ tusks, and various articles of apparel,
amongst which I noticed the uniform of a Portuguese dragoon. I took
advantage of the good humour and communicative mood of the king, to
gain from him some information about Marutse history and the growth of
the kingdom; and as various points were afterwards confirmed by several
of the chiefs, it may not be inopportune to introduce them here.
Under the leadership of their chief Sebituani, a branch of the Basutos
between the upper courses of the Orange and Vaal rivers emigrated
northwards. After forcing their way through the Bechuana countries,
and subduing various tribes on the lower Chobe and central Zambesi
(amongst whom were the eastern Bamashi and Barutse, who occupied
an area of 2000 square miles), they not only succeeded in exacting
tribute from other tribes as far eastward as the river Kafue, but they
consolidated themselves into the Makololo Empire. Their next king was
Sekeletu. The discords that sprung up amongst the people during his
reign opened the way for the vanquished Marutse tribe to resume arms
against them, and that with such success that after several battles the
Makololos residing between the Chobe and the Zambesi, already decimated
by disease, were reduced to two men and some boys, while their male
population south of the Chobe, who had numbered more than 2000, were in
like manner brought down to a mere handful. Had they remained on the
right bank of the Chobe, the Makololos would probably have existed
to this day; but fearing that the Marutse would be reinforced by the
Mabundas and other subject tribes, they made their way towards Lake
N’gami in the territory of the western Bamangwatos. There they were
sadly deceived; they were received with apparent cordiality, but were
ultimately the victims of a cruel stratagem; messengers from King
Letshuatabele greeted them with the salutation, “If you come as friends
and not as foes, leave your spears and battle-axes and come into the
city;” in full confidence they accepted the invitation, but no sooner
had they entered the kotla than the citizens barred the entrance with
poles and boughs, and massacred them to a man. The women were divided
amongst the conquerors, the king having his first choice of the most
attractive; the chiefs took the next pick, leaving the rest to be
distributed amongst their subjects. From that time women of brown
complexion have been found amongst the Bathowanas and people north
of the Zambesi, though the dark-skinned tribes always regard it as a
sign of degeneration of race. Sepopo subsequently took possession of
the whole of the Makololo country, with the exception of the eastern
Bamashi territory and their land south of the Chobe, where he did not
enter from fear of the Matabele.
To the north of the Marutse was the Mabunda kingdom, which was governed
by members of the Marutse royal family. The queen on her death-bed some
years before had designated Sepopo’s eldest daughter Moquai as her
successor, but Moquai, alarmed at the prospect of persecution from her
father, handed over the government to him; and thus it happened that
now I found a conjoint Marutse-Mabunda rule, under the sovereignty of
Sepopo, a direct descendant of the original royal family of the Marutse.
During breakfast Sepopo sent for the chief representatives of eighteen
of the larger tribes and introduced them to me. These tribes are
subdivided into eighty-three smaller ones, and their chiefs are all
more or less in communication with Sesheke. In addition to those that
have been settled for some time within the kingdom, there are the
Matabele, Menon’s Malalakas, and the Masarwas scattered in various
districts; of these the two latter are fugitive tribes from the south,
the Matabele having been tributary to the Bamangwatos, and Menon’s
Malalakas to the Matabele.
The Marutse occupy the fertile valleys of the Barotse country on
both sides the Zambesi, from Sekhose to about 150 miles south of the
confluence of the Kabompo and the Liba. I believe the Barotse valley to
be the most productive portion of the kingdom, and as well adapted for
agriculture as for cattle-breeding; it abounds in game, but is likewise
prolific in wild vegetable products, of which india-rubber is not the
least important. The country, formerly the residence of various members
of the royal family, contains several towns; the districts east and
north-east of it are occupied by the Mabundas, so that it follows that
the bulk of the population that lies outside the Barotse is, for the
most part, to be found near the rivers Nyoko, Lombe, and Loi.
The district joining the Mabundas on the north is in the occupation
of the Mankoë, but it does not extend beyond the west bank of the
Zambesi; again to the north of this is the settlement of the Mamboë,
on the lower Kabompo and Liba. Around the town of Kavagola, on the
upper Zambesi, are the Bamomba and Manengo tribes, while the Masupia
region lies for fifty miles up the river from a point about thirty
miles below its junction with the Chobe. East of this the Batoka people
range for thirty miles below the Victoria Falls, where their frontier
is joined by the Matongas, who reside near the middle of the Kashteja,
Livingstone’s Majeela. On the lower course of the Kashteja, between the
Matongas and Masupias, are the western Makalakas, the eastern Makalakas
being farther down the Zambesi, with Wankie’s kraal as their principal
property. The Luyana tribe is settled south of the Zambesi to the west
of the Masupias, and the other tribes either extend in small districts
thence towards the Barotse valley, north of the Matongas, and east
of the Mamboë, or have scattered themselves about in little detached
settlements here and there over the kingdom.
[Illustration:
_Vol. II._ MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS OF THE MARUTSE.
_Page 147._]
Nearly the whole of these which I have thus briefly enumerated are,
with the marked distinction of the Marutse, held as vassals, the
people being treated to a certain degree as slaves. However it is not
more than a quarter of them who actually pay any tribute, these being
chiefly the eastern tribes, such as the Batokas, eastern Makalakas
and Mabimbis. As a consequence of Sepopo’s oppression, many of the
natives have withdrawn from the kingdom, generally going south,
and the difficulty of collecting tribute anywhere has very greatly
increased. The imposts levied upon such as can be induced to pay them
consist chiefly of cereals, either wheat, kaffir-corn, and maize, or
of consignments of dried fruits, gourds, india-rubber, mats, canoes,
weapons of any kind, wooden utensils, and musical instruments. Ivory,
honey, and manza are crown-property, and it is a capital offence for
any one to carry on any transactions with regard to them on his own
account. Without exception, all the tribes are bound to supply the
Marutse sovereign with a stated number of tusks, both of male and
female elephants, and with a stipulated quantity of the skins of a
large dark brown species of lemur.
The prevailing language of the kingdom, and the principal medium of
correspondence between the different tribes, is that of the extirpated
Makololos. Overtaken as they have been by the arm of fate, and swept
away from existence as a recognized community, they have yet bequeathed
to their conquerors the heritage of their dialect. The enlargement
of the kingdom by the annexation of the Mabunda territory, and the
ever-increasing traffic with the population south of the Zambesi, have
resulted in the Sesuto of the Makololos being adopted as the common
tongue. It is of immense advantage to an explorer to be familiar
with it, as although it may not be found in its purity, having been
corrupted more or less by the admixture of the Serotse, it will rarely
fail to enable him to make himself understood in any quarter of the
kingdom.
When I asked the king the extent of his dominions, he told me that it
took his people fifteen or twenty days to reach the northern frontier;
and after making strict inquiries, first of the native chiefs, then
of the envoys from the Mashukulumbe, and lastly from the Portuguese
traders, and reducing the days’ journeys to miles, I think that I am
quite borne out in assigning the boundaries as they are marked in my
map; that is to say, with the Mashukulumbe on the north and east, the
Bamashis on the west, and the Bamangwatos and Matabele country on the
south.
Sepopo’s name in the Serotse dialect means “a dream,” and his mother
was called Mangala. After introducing me to the principal chiefs and
officials that were then in Sesheke, amongst whom was Kapella the
commander-in-chief, he presented Mashoku the executioner, a repulsive
Mabunda, and his two fathers-in-law, who were about to become his
sons-in-law as well, as, having married their daughters, he was going
to give them two of his own young daughters as wives in return.
During the time that these introductions were going on, honey-beer was
being drunk, and it occurred to me that Lunga, the handsomest of the
ladies, took an uncommonly large share. Very shortly afterwards three
Marutse came into the tent uttering a loud cry of “Shangwe,” and each
carrying a buffalo’s tail; they had been sent by the king to procure
some meat for Blockley and myself. Before I left, Sepopo pointed out to
me his two doctors who provided him with charms when he went hunting.
I spent the remainder of the day in making an investigation of the
town, returning in the evening to the royal residence, where I found
that Makumba had just come in from Impalera, bringing the melancholy
intelligence that Y., the trader that I had met at Schneemann’s Pan,
and had urged to go on as quickly as possible to my waggon at Panda ma
Tenka, had died before reaching there.
On the night of the 20th an event occurred that rather tended to
disturb the harmonious relations between Sepopo and myself. By
Blockley’s hospitality a very lively evening had been spent in his
courtyard, and it was getting on for midnight before his black guests
of both sexes had emptied the three great pitchers of beer with which
he had entertained them, and had set out on their way home. For a long
time afterwards the uproar they made, and the harsh notes of their
calabash keyboards, made sleep quite out of the question, but at length
I dropped into a doze, from which I was almost immediately aroused by
the barking of a dog. I opened my eyes, and at once observed that my
hut was peculiarly light, although I had blocked up the entrance with
a chest. In another instant I made out that there was a dark figure
in the aperture, and that a native was in the very act of taking my
clothes, which I had thrown on the top of the chest. The only weapon
that was at hand was an assegai which I had bought on the previous day,
but it was hanging out of my reach; and before I could get at it, the
thief and a partner he had with him had run away towards the huts. I
followed as quickly as I could, but too late to see them. On my way I
found that they had left a stick and a fish behind. It was not likely
that I could get much more sleep that night, and the first thing I did
in the morning was to go and tell the king what had happened. He made a
very evasive reply, and I could feel evidently enough that my company
that day gave him anything but pleasure. Nevertheless I determined to
do what I could to sift the matter to the bottom. In spite of the
absurdity of expecting to get an applicant, I sent one of Blockley’s
servants to the town to circulate the report that I had found a stick,
which I should be happy to return to its proper owner. Late in the
afternoon a middle-aged man appeared and claimed the stick, and as he
said that the fish was also his property, I took him off forthwith to
the king. Meanwhile the stolen articles had been concealed, and when
the man’s hut was searched by the king’s messenger nothing could be
found, and accordingly the man was declared not guilty. I expressed
my dissatisfaction with the judgment, whereupon the king said that
if I wished it the man should be punished, but as I quite understood
that this punishment meant death, I acquiesced in his being released;
nevertheless I made it thoroughly well known that I should shoot the
very next burglar that I found trying to get into my hut. Sepopo
assented to all I said, and repeated my words aloud to the crowd that
had been drawn together by the affair.
Later in the evening some Barotse men arrived with their subsidies of
corn, one of them being a Matabele who had been captured by Sekeletu.
Sepopo took them in and showed them over his hut, of which he was not a
little proud.
As it had been intimated to me by Masangu, an official who might be
described as the controller of the arsenal, that the king was willing
to grant me some favour by way of compensation for my annoyance at
the robbery, I considered it a good opportunity to prefer my formal
request for permission to explore his dominions. For this purpose I was
conducted into the little courtyard, where I found Sepopo sitting with
about thirty men squatting around him in perfect silence; my eye, as I
entered, at once lighted upon one of these men who was bent down in a
peculiarly demure attitude. It struck me immediately that he was not a
Marutse native, and on looking again I saw that he was a half-caste.
Having asked the king whether he had heard of my wishes from Westbeech,
and receiving an answer in the affirmative, I proceeded to explain to
him, as definitely as I could, the object of my journey. He listened to
me very attentively, and was silent for some moments, after which he
said,--
“Can the white doctor speak Serotse or Sesuto?”
I replied that I knew neither.
“Can he then speak the language of these men?” and he pointed to two of
the attendants squatting on the ground beside him, one of which was the
sly-looking half-caste that I had already noticed.
On my asking who they were, the man servilely raised his hat, and in a
fawning voice informed me that he and the companion at his side were
Portuguese traders and good Christians. I further ascertained that
they belong to the so-called Mambari, of whom I had heard all kinds of
unpleasant stories. Sepopo introduced the man who had spoken to me by
the name of Sykendu, adding that he was “a great man” and “a doctor,”
but the hypocritical look which the fellow put on only confirmed me
in the unfavourable impression I had formed of his character. Finding
that I was not acquainted with their language, the king said that
he considered it was quite necessary I should learn something of it
before leaving Sesheke, as then these men might act as my guides and
interpreters, and would be able to render me invaluable assistance.
On further conversation I learnt that the Portuguese traders from
Loanda, Mossamedes, and Benguela are thoroughly acquainted with the
district between the west coast and Lake Bangweolo, and with all the
country eastwards as far as the mouth of the Kafue, the whole of
which we are accustomed to consider as “_terra incognita_;” they
not only are acquainted with the rulers of the native states, but
are intimate with all the sub-chieftains, knowing their individual
peculiarities; they are familiar with the winding of every hill, and
the passage of every river; but meanwhile they are most careful, in
conjunction with their white colleagues, to keep all their knowledge
to themselves, always fearful that the traders of other nations may be
attracted to what they are wont to consider their own proper fields for
ivory and caoutchouc.
Overhearing that Sepopo was speaking to me about my having the services
of two guides, Sykendu came up and put in his word again. He raised
his hat, bowed almost to the ground, crossed himself, and swore by the
Holy Virgin that he and his brother were two of the best Christians in
the interior, and as such would be the most suitable guides I could
find. Probably this attestation on his part was made in answer to the
suspicious look with which I regarded him and his associate.
Sepopo waited a moment or two to see whether I had more to say, and
then remarked that he was satisfied it would be a good thing for me
to learn either the Serotse or the Makololo dialect, as it might
enable me to avoid what had happened to Monari (Livingstone), who, in
consequence of not being able to make himself understood by the chiefs,
had been taken for a magician who had come down from heaven with the
rain, an impression which he only removed by making them a present of
some muskets.
Again Sykendu interrupted the conversation between the king and myself,
by saying he supposed that I was aware that the guides always expected
a good remuneration for their services, and although Sepopo told him
that that would be settled all right, he went on to say that they would
require four tusks weighing eighty pounds apiece. I told him that I
should give four tusks weighing forty pounds apiece, and that only on
condition that I should deposit them with Sepopo, to be handed over to
them on their return from Matimbundu, whither they were to conduct me.
However, after all these arrangements had been made, when I really
went on my tour from Sesheke, it was not with the two Mambari for my
guides. I had meantime learnt that they were slave-dealers, and having
various other reasons for distrusting them, I declined their services
altogether.
After I had made what I then supposed would be my final contract with
the guides, Sepopo promised to provide me with canoes and boatmen to
convey me to the Barotse valley, beyond which I should have to procure
a change of crews in every fresh district as far as the Mamboë country.
The Mamboë, who would ultimately accompany me to the great water, i.e.
the sea, would have to be recompensed for their services by a musket
apiece; but the boatmen who took me only for the short stages I should
find would be satisfied with shirts or pieces of calico. The king
moreover undertook to order all the tribes along the river to supply my
party with whatever provisions should be requisite. He strongly advised
me to wend my way northwards towards Lake Bangweolo, a route, he said,
by which I should be able to dispense with canoes and to travel with
bearers, and which would be at once more convenient to him and less
dangerous to myself.
I have since very much repented that I did not follow this advice, but
at that time I was under the conviction that I should be doing much
more for the advancement of science by following the Zambesi to its
source; I likewise thought that I should find the canoe-voyage less
fatiguing to myself, so that my strength might be reserved for the
prolonged land-journey that would come after.
My next proceeding might have been at once to return to Panda ma Tenka
to conclude my necessary preparations, but I did not leave Sesheke
for another day or two, and amused myself on one occasion by going to
inspect the site selected for the new town. I came upon a very animated
and interesting scene; the building-operations were in full swing, and
the river was alive with canoes laden with grass, stakes, and reeds,
some going straight along the stream, and some crossing from bank to
bank. On the shore, men and women in single file were carrying loads of
grass in bundles that almost swept the ground behind them; others were
conveying long poles, from which were suspended the great clay vessels,
in which the store of corn was being removed from the old granary to
the new. Every here and there was what might be called a peripatetic
roof, being a thatch in the course of removal, nothing of its means of
locomotion being visible but the thirty or forty feet of the bearers,
the foremost of whom had some holes pierced in the roof by which they
could see their way; many of the people were singing at their work, and
some of them carrying heavy burdens passed me at a good smart trot. The
very queens found work to do, and I noticed them, assisted by their
maids, moving large bundles of the grass. Hearing the words “moro,
nyaka makoa,” (good morning, white doctor), I turned and found that the
greeting came from Makumba the chief, who was passing by with a number
of his people.
Nearly all the residents in the old town were taking down their huts
and preparing to migrate, none more busy than Blockley, who was packing
up all his goods in readiness to transfer them from his present
enclosure to a grass hut that the king had directed should be built for
him in the new settlement.
While I was sitting in my hut writing my journal on the following
day, I was startled by the cry of “molemo, molemo!” (fire, fire!)
and immediately I rushed outside; a single hut was in flames, but as
it was standing in the midst of some hundreds more, the reed-thatch
roofs of which were all extra dry from the heat of the weather,
there was every reason to fear that others would catch fire, and
that the brisk east wind that was blowing would fan the flames into
a general conflagration. Crowds of women and children came shrieking
and holloaing down the pathway from the river, and to increase the
commotion, as the fire spread there were the constant reports of the
guns that had been left in the huts, the bullets flying about in all
directions, and imperilling the lives of all the bystanders. I had
hardly managed to get my own little property into a safe place outside
the hut, when Blockley came running up to fetch some shovels. All
Westbeech’s gunpowder, as well as what he had sold to Sepopo, had been
stored in a hut at the edge of the forest, and as nothing was more
likely than that the forest itself would catch fire, he was anxious to
get the powder away, and to have it buried underground as quickly as
possible.
To the west of our quarters and about thirty yards away stood the
king’s stable, a building composed of stakes, and on the west was
a group of huts, likewise at a considerable distance, so that from
these there was no particular danger to be apprehended; but on the
north, which was the direction of the fire, there were two huts so
close to us, that should they catch light our safety must be seriously
compromised; luckily they remained intact, but the crackling flames
were getting nearer and nearer to them, lighting up the figures of
the men who were doing their utmost to arrest their progress. I had
only Pit and one of Blockley’s servants with me; they did what they
could to carry up our gourds and clay pitchers full of water from the
river, though they smashed a good many of them in their excitement;
but I called them off, and made them help me tear down the fence of
our enclosure, thus putting a very effectual check upon the spread of
any flames towards us. Others of the natives took the hint and did the
same, but in spite of all efforts, more than half of Old Sesheke was
destroyed.
Sepopo’s mode of showing his annoyance at what had occurred was
somewhat extraordinary. He was in New Sesheke at the time, and when he
heard what had happened, and saw the flames rising above the old town,
he set to work and vigorously belaboured all his attendants with a
thick stick, only giving up from sheer fatigue.
In course of time Blockley came back with the satisfactory intelligence
that he had succeeded in saving the gunpowder, and on receiving
my congratulations, returned the compliment by expressing his
gratification at my having prevented the destruction of the warehouses.
I little thought to what a risk I had been exposed, for I was not aware
until afterwards that Blockley had a chest containing 700 lbs. of
gunpowder in the courtyard itself.
On the following day several canoes arrived from the Barotse, and were
placed at my disposal by Sepopo, who urged upon me to lose no time in
returning to Panda ma Tenka, completing my preparations, and getting
back to Sesheke ready to start. However I did not set out until the
30th, being resolved first to see Blockley settled in his new quarters;
my time was fully occupied in making additions to my ethnographical
collection, in studying the habits of the native tribes, as exhibited
by the representatives who were staying in the place, and especially
in learning the Sesuto language. Relying upon the king’s promise that
the way to the west coast should be open to me, I now arranged with
Blockley for him to take my waggon and various collections back to
Shoshong, and to deposit them there until my arrival, and as he was in
want of bullocks, I let him have my team in exchange for ivory and
articles that I should be likely to find serviceable, such as calico
and beads.
Before continuing my personal narrative, and concluding my account of
my first visit to the residence of king Sepopo, I think it desirable to
give some outline of the characteristics of the various tribes dwelling
in his dominions.
With the exception of the Mashonas, on the east of the Matabele, there
are none of the South African tribes that exhibit so much energy, as
these in the Marutse-Mabunda kingdom. The various products of their
handicraft to be found throughout the country mark them out to a
student of comparative ethnology as people of a relatively high state
of culture, an inference which is further illustrated and confirmed
by their skill in boating, fishing, and other similar pursuits. Their
aptitude in manipulating metal, horn, bone, wood, or leather, augurs
well for their mental capacity, and they are very quick in receiving
instruction. Compared with the tribes south of the Zambesi it must be
confessed that their moral standard is low, but this proceeds so much
from their primitive ignorance, and from their long seclusion from the
outer world, and not, as is the case with the Hottentots, from wilful
and degraded corruption, that I do not hesitate to express my belief
that in this respect they will gradually show many signs of improvement.
Perhaps the evil which is most deeply rooted among them is their
superstition. In this they are far worse than most other South African
tribes, the Zulus and Matabele being hardly their match in this
respect. The effect of the vice is both demonstrated and aggravated by
the multitude of human lives that are sacrificed to its demands. The
royal house on the Zambesi is the very hot-bed of superstition; magic
is the pretext under which the worst of barbarities are perpetrated,
and the people, associating the enormities with the sovereigns who
sanction them, learn at once to dread and hate their rulers. To
deliver the people of the district from their superstitious credulity,
would be to remove the greatest hindrance that exists to their future
civilization.
Among the Marutse the king has a despotic power extending to the land
as well as to the population; until the time however of the present
ruler, whose rule is that of a tyrant, it has very rarely happened
that any king has stretched his right to interfere with private
property. During their own lifetime the reigning sovereigns appoint
their successors; these may be of either sex, provided they are born
of a Marutse mother--and women are especially welcome as sovereigns
among the northern tribes, on the presumption that they are less cruel
than men. Amongst the Bechuanas, who are more conservative in their
instincts, the eldest son of the principal wife is always recognized
as the rightful heir, and so strictly is this rule enforced, that
even if the king should die before the heir is born, the eldest son
of the widowed queen by another husband would still be held to be the
legitimate successor to the throne. In 1875 Sepopo appointed his little
daughter of six years of age to be queen at his own demise; by right
his eldest daughter Moquai should have been nominated, but as she had
been formally designated as the proper sovereign of the Mabundas, he
feared that she already had too many friends and supporters in that
district, to make it advisable for him to name her as successor to the
joint kingdom. The king’s principal wife is always called “the mother
of the country.”
The king holds the offices of chief doctor and chief magician, and
under the cloke of these two arts, he works upon the credulity of the
people by the most hideous crimes, being himself quite aware of the
hollowness of his pretences.
Large sources of revenue are open to the king of the Marutse people.
Besides his own extensive territories, which are cultivated partly
by colonies of subjects, and partly by the royal wives with their
staff of labourers, the direct taxes, which include contributions of
every article which a prince can require, yield an immense revenue.
As a consequence, moreover, of ivory and india-rubber, the staple
commodities of the country, being crown property, the king is the chief
merchant, and from time to time he makes large purchases of goods to
the amount of 3000_l._ to 5000_l._, which he gives away to
the people who reside near him, or to the chiefs or subjects who may
happen to visit him, always stipulating that any guns that may be
distributed shall be considered not given, but lent. Notwithstanding
his wealth, it will often happen that the king looks with a covetous
eye upon some property, perhaps a fine herd of cattle, belonging to
one of his more well-to-do subjects, and although he considers he has
a perfect right to it, he hardly likes to carry it off by force, but
proceeds to get the owner convicted of treason or witchcraft, and put
to death, after which he appropriates to himself the property he wants.
Quite undisputed is the king’s power to put to death, or to make a
slave of any one of his subjects in any way he chooses; he may take a
man’s wife simply by providing him with another wife as a substitute,
and he is quite at liberty to demand any children he may wish to devote
to the purposes of his magic. Reigning queens may choose any husband
they like, perfectly regardless of the consideration whether he is
married or not. It is high treason for any subject to retain possession
of an article that is either more handsome or more valuable than what
belongs to the king, and anything of exceptional quality, whether it
has been purchased from neighbouring tribes or from white men, or even
manufactured in the country, belongs to the king, or at least is free
for him to claim as a matter of course. I could not offer anybody a
present of anything the least unusual without finding it invariably
refused, the excuse being that no one dared to take for himself what he
was not quite sure that Sepopo already possessed.
In their style of building, as in other respects, the Marutse-Mabunda
people surpass most of the tribes south of the Zambesi. This remark,
however, applies only to the stationary tribes, and does not include
the temporary erections put up by those who come for hunting and
fishing, either on their own sites or in places marked out for them
by the chief or king; such structures are generally found on the
river-banks, or on wooded slopes, or in glades where game is likely
to resort; but the permanent settlements are scattered over the
kingdom, the larger towns being mainly in the Barotse country. The
houses in these established towns are as a general rule equally strong
and comfortable, and they have the advantage of being very quickly
constructed. It may be said that the material required is very
abundant, and most conveniently close at hand, but so it is in the case
of the tribes much farther south. The northern people are much more
adroit in turning their natural advantages to good account. No better
example is needed than that of New Sesheke to prove the rapidity of
their building-operations; nor can it be objected that their huts are
more liable to be burnt down than those of the Bechuana, Zulu, and
Hottentot races; the truth is that when any of these are destroyed,
they are so easily replaced that the damage is quite inappreciable.
The river-system of the Marutse district is just of the character, on
account of its extensive marsh-lands, to provide the inhabitants with
most admirable and productive sites for their settlements; all around
is an abundance of reeds for building purposes, wood for framework and
for laths, besides bast, palm-leaves for making ropes and twine, metal
for nails and bolts, and sand and clay for cement. Even if it should
happen that in any particular spot there should be a deficiency of any
one of these materials, the light canoes are so available, and the
natives so ready to assist one another, that the want is soon supplied.
The towns are built as close to the rivers as the annual inundations
will permit, and are generally surrounded by villages that are for
the most part tenanted by the vassal people, who till the fields and
tend the cattle of the masters who reside within the town itself. That
cleanliness is comparatively great, both in the settlements and amongst
the population, is probably to be attributed to the abundance of water
always at their command.
I observed that the Marutse themselves were always to be credited with
a more masterly style of workmanship than any of the servile tribes
around them and in their employ. They had three distinct classes of
buildings, one of a double concentric form, another cylindrical, and a
third long and low. That which I designate the concentric hut consists
of two compartments, the inner being the loftier and in shape like
the inferior half of a cone, the outside one considerably lower and
cylindrical in its form. The inner hut is covered by a low vaulted
roof of its own, over which is placed another roof, conical in its
design, and projecting five or six feet beyond the top of the outer
compartment, supported at its extremity by a series of upright posts
that form a shady verandah running round the whole. After the owner,
with the help of his vassals, has procured the materials, and prepared
the foundation by making a layer of level cement, the construction of
the edifice is left to the women. A royal residence is always built
by the royal wives. The circular sites upon which the structures are
reared vary from twenty to forty feet in circumference; round their
edge a trench is dug some ten or twelve inches deep and about five
inches wide, into which are planted loose bundles of strong reeds,
when the trench is filled up with soil again. To bind the loose reeds
together several palm-leaf cords are woven amongst them, and as these
are drawn tighter and tighter they have the effect of giving the
structure a conical form, arising from the tapering character of the
reeds themselves; these are then trimmed off evenly at a height of
about twelve feet from the ground, after which the outside, and not
unfrequently the inside also, is plastered over with cement. Meanwhile
a low conical roof has been woven by the men, which is placed in
position, and left to be cemented on by the women. The doorway, which
generally faces the entrance to the enclosure, is a semi-oval aperture
cut in the reeds, and finished off all round with a cement moulding.
This completes the inner compartment.
For the outer building the foundation is made in precisely the same
way; the trench is dug, but the reeds inserted are some two feet at
least shorter than before; in consequence however of this being the
wall which has to maintain the great burden of the roof, it is always
strengthened by a number of peeled stakes driven in firmly against
it at intervals of only a few inches apart, and when the whole has
been thoroughly cemented over on both sides, the material of which
it has been formed is quite undistinguishable. The doorway is cut so
as to correspond exactly with that of the inner compartment, and is
generally about six feet high and three feet wide. While the outer
wall, ordinarily from forty to sixty feet in circumference, is being
finished by the women, the men drive in the verandah-poles about a yard
or a yard and a half away, and then proceed to put together the upper
or principal roof, the lifting of which into position is the greatest
difficulty of the whole; the operation is effected by about fifty men
raising it from the ground by long levers and gradually getting it
supported all round on a number of short stakes; these stakes are then
replaced by longer ones, which in their turn are exchanged for others
yet longer, until the roof has been elevated by degrees to such a
height that its edge can be laid above the top of the inner roof; it is
then driven carefully onwards by main force until it properly covers
the two enclosures. The ends of the reeds have then to be clipped off
even all round the top of the verandah, after which the entire roof is
covered with a layer of last year’s grass five or six inches thick, and
bound over with a perfect network of palm-cord to make it firm against
the wind. Great pains are bestowed upon getting a smooth surface to the
cement, particularly where it is laid over the cornice of the inner
doorway, which not unfrequently is very delicately moulded. I was told
that the former royal residence in the Barotse valley had been very
prettily built.
Of the kind of houses that I have been describing the king has three
for his own use; they are surrounded by an oval fence, and form the
centre of several circles of homesteads, the nearest circle containing
eight residences for the queens, built in the Masupia style like ovens,
and accommodating two or three ladies apiece; beyond these are placed
the storehouse, the culinary offices, and the huts for the royal
musicians; the fourth and outer circle consisting of the huts for all
the servants of both sexes, and containing likewise the council-hall,
which is fitted up very much in European fashion. Ordinarily the chiefs
would have their abodes in a wide circle outside the court, but here in
New Sesheke, where the royal buildings are bounded on one side by the
river, the dwellings are arranged in a semicircle, the ground assigned
to each being very accurately marked out. For protection against wild
beasts the entrance to the king’s courtyard is closed every night by a
strong palisade of reeds.
The second kind of huts, which I have specified as the cylindrical,
are chiefly used by a branch tribe of the Marutse. If the walls of
these are cemented at all, it is only on the inside, and they are
rarely more than about eleven feet in diameter; their tops, however,
are occasionally decorated with ornaments made of wood, grass, or straw.
The other description of huts, the gabled, have a low doorway generally
in the middle, opposite the entrance to the courtyard, and their
reed-roof projects, so as to form an eave that serves to throw off the
rain. In the larger erections of this kind, the gable is supported by
stakes, and the interior is divided by matting into two apartments, the
larger being used for sleeping in, and the other as a reception-room.
Any enclosure larger than usual would often be found to contain two
of these huts. The more wealthy inhabitants sometimes have a detached
granary as well, and chiefs not unfrequently provide themselves with an
additional erection which serves as a consultation hall. As a general
rule the courtyards are oval, and the principal building exactly faces
the entrance.
I should say that two-thirds of the Marutse in Sesheke live in houses
such as I have here described, under their chief Maranzian. The huts of
the Mabunda people are in many respects not unlike them, but they are
shorter and broader, with flatter roofs, and the courtyards in which
they stand are quadrilateral instead of oval, composed of stakes about
six feet high, driven into the ground five feet or less apart, and
connected by a fence of reeds braced on to strong cross-poles.
Besides the three principal houses of the king’s residences, I noticed
within the enclosure three small huts, one of which served the double
purpose of bath-room and laboratory. It had a straw roof about two feet
in diameter, supported on thin stakes, and in the centre was a post
five feet high, covered all over with a most promiscuous collection
of articles; there were antelopes’ horns, bones, strings of coral,
calabash baskets of herbs, bags of poison used for executions, magical
instruments in great variety made of wood or ivory, scales of pangolins
and crocodiles, a number of snakes’ skins, and a lot of rags. The floor
was strewn with miscellaneous things of a similar character, and up in
the roof was a small medicine-chest, which had been a present from a
Portuguese trader. Several musical instruments were hanging against the
sides of the hut. An immense wooden tub was brought in every evening,
in which Sepopo took his bath.
In front of the laboratory-hut stood another, with a roof in the
form of a prism; this was devoted to the reception of any deformed
elephants’ tusks, and to the storing of the many vessels containing the
different charms employed by the king when he went out hunting.
Beyond this again was another hut, also with a prism-shaped roof
supported by the stem of a tree, where was deposited a collection of
elephants’ tails, trophies of the number of animals that had been
killed in the neighbourhood; it was also the place of security for a
large number of assegais, the finest and best made in the country.
Between the huts and the high reed fence there were several wooden
stands holding the clay vessels, and gourds containing the ordinary
hunting-charms; and whatever court I entered I never failed to notice
a branch of a tree or small dry stem planted in the ground, where the
master of the house hung the skulls of antelopes or the upper vertebræ
of the larger mammalia as trophies of his prowess. After a hunter’s
death these are always placed upon his grave.
While walking along the river side on the 26th, I saw a crocodile rise
from the river and snap at a man in a canoe. Fortunately he observed
his danger in time, and managed to save himself by leaping on to the
sandy bank.
During this day the king gave a Mabunda dance in my honour--a
performance of so objectionable a character that the negroes themselves
are quite conscious of its impropriety, and refuse to dance it except
in masks. In their ideas of music the Marutse-Mabundas seem to be
comparatively well advanced. It is quite true, indeed, that in the
skilful handling of their instruments they are surpassed by some of
the tribes on the east coast, who have more constant intercourse with
the Portuguese, and in singing they are not a match for the Matabele
Zulus; but here was the first instance that I found of a king with a
private band composed entirely of native _artistes_. Altogether
the band consisted of twenty men, but it was very rarely that more than
eight or ten of them performed at the same time, the rest being kept
in reserve for the night. There were several drummers among them, who
played with the palms of their hands or with their fingers upon long
conical or cylindrical kettle-drums, over which they walked astride, or
upon double drums in the shape of an hour-glass, which were suspended
from their necks by a strap. The principal instruments were the
myrimbas, or calabash pianos, which were carried in the same way as
the double-drums. The two royal zither-players very seldom performed
together. All the musicians were obliged to be singers as well, having
to screech out the king’s praises between the intervals in the music,
or to the muffled accompaniment of their instruments.
[Illustration: KISHI-DANCE.]
[Illustration: MASK OF A KISHI-DANCER.]
The band was never allowed to perform without express orders from
the king, but was required to hold itself in constant readiness;
its services were always brought into requisition on his entry into
the town, and whenever he honoured any public dances, weddings,
or other festivities with his presence. Besides the three kinds of
drums, the myrimbas, and the zither-like sylimbas, I noticed that
the orchestra included some stringed instruments made of the ribs
of fan-palms, as well as some iron bells, one sort being double and
without clappers, some rattles made of fruit shells, and various pipes
formed of ivory, wood, or reeds. The stringed instruments are used at
the elephant-dance, the bells at the kishi-dance, and the rattles at
weddings. On the occasion of the Masupia prophetic dance, the king
lends a number of hollow bottle-shaped gourd-shells filled with dry
seeds, which, when they are rattled, are exceedingly noisy. Rattles,
bells, and pipes, as well as guitars of a simple make, were to be
found amongst the ordinary population, but all the larger and more
elaborate instruments were confined to the royal band, consequently I
was unable to get hold of any proper specimen of this class of native
handicraft for my collection. In nearly all settlements small drums
are kept in the council-hut, and are beaten on the occasion of any
successful hunting-excursion, and at funerals.
The Marutse-Mabunda melodies are somewhat monotonous, but they are
very numerous, and are of a character that make it evident that a
little cultivation would soon effect a decided improvement in them.
Of course the ordinary manipulation of the different instruments is
purely mechanical; but amongst the king’s zither-players I observed two
grey-headed old men, who really displayed some amount of taste. As they
hummed I could hear that their voices were precisely in time with their
instruments, gradually sinking to a whisper in the _pianissimo_
part, and as gradually rising to a _forte_ when the tune required
it. Their performance was a pleasant contrast to the discordant shouts
of the head drummer, who strove to compete with the noise of his own
huge instrument.
There is one more instrument which I much regret to have met with in
the Marutse country at all, but which must not be omitted from the
enumeration. I allude to the war-drum. In the council-hall there were
four of these ghastly-looking objects. The skins were painted all over
with red, to represent blood, and they were filled with fragments of
dry flesh and bones, these bones being principally the toes and fingers
of the live children of distinguished parents, and supposed to be
amulets to protect the rising town of Sesheke from fire and sword, and
to guard the kingdom generally from assault and rapine.
Singing amongst the Marutse-Mabunda people is better than amongst
the Bechuanas, and may be said in many respects to equal that of the
Matabele Zulus, though still inferior in the great songs of war and
death.
The dance to which I have said the king invited me on the 26th was
called the kishi-dance, and is never performed except by the king’s
order. Its main object seems to be to inflame animal passion, and it
is danced by two men, one of whom is supposed to represent a woman, or
occasionally by two couples. The performers step forward from a group
of young people, who are all singing most vigorously, and clapping
their hands in time to the great tubular drums that are being sounded.
Having turned their faces towards the king, they commence a series of
gestures indicating, with many contortions, the advances of one party
coquettishly rejected by the other. The costumes being royal property
I failed to get possession of any of them. They consist of a mask
with a network attached to it, and a peculiar covering for the loins.
The masks, which are a _specialité_ in Mabunda handicraft, are
modelled by boys from clay and cow-dung, and painted with chalk and red
ochre. They are considerably larger than the head, completely covering
the neck. Altogether they bear a sort of resemblance to a helmet with
a vizor; small openings are left for the eyes and mouth, and sometimes
for the nose; upon the top are knobs adorned in the middle with an
ornament made from the tail of a striped gnu, and at the sides with
bunches of feathers; the _tout ensemble_ is not unlike that of a
gurgoyle. Attached to the head-piece, and covering the shoulders, is a
long, tight jacket of netted bast, with close-fitting sleeves. Gloves
and stockings of the same material are likewise worn. The performer
personating a woman wears a woollen skirt, reaching from the waist to
the ankles, over which is the skin of an animal hanging down before and
behind. The only distinction between the male and female mask is that
the ornament on the male is more elaborate, and that a wisp of straw
is twisted round the neck of the female. A steel girdle is worn round
the waist, to the back of which a number of small bells is attached,
keeping up a tinkling upon the slightest movement. The dance is
repeated in public almost every fortnight. It attracts a large number
of spectators at every performance, but children are not allowed to be
present.
On the 27th I saw some people of the Alumba tribe, who had their hair
dressed in a very peculiar fashion. Over the scalp it was divided into
four rows of tufts, nearly two and a half inches long, which were so
thickly plastered over with a mixture of grease and manganese that the
mass of the hair was completely embedded, and nothing left to appear
but the ends of the tufts. Some of the Marutse wore pangolin scales
round their necks, or pieces of a kind of tortoiseshell, with which
they are skilful in stanching blood. I was also shown a piece of wood,
which is a remedy for whooping-cough, being sucked by children with
good effect.
Sepopo made repeated visits to us, always accompanied by a number of
servants bringing great quantities of ivory, which he bartered with
Blockley for guns and ammunition. Whenever he was going to send his
hunters on an excursion, he always had the men into his residence
overnight, and gave them about a quart of gunpowder each, taking an
account of what he had done. Blockley made great complaints because
the king always required a present after every transaction. It was a
custom that Westbeech had introduced when he was the sole trader who
did business on the Zambesi, and could demand what terms he liked for
his goods; but now that other dealers had found their way to Sesheke
they were all completely in the king’s power; and the result of the
competition was to make them bid such high prices for the ivory that
they had good cause to grumble at the bad state of trade.
When I went to the king next day to consult him again about my journey,
I found that he had just had an altercation with Blockley, and was
consequently rather cross; but by interesting him in some of my
travelling experiences, I managed to put him into a good temper again,
and he began to show me my proper route, by drawing a map of the Upper
Zambesi and its affluents with his stick on the sand. He was much
pleased with the interest I took in his communications, and calling to
him two Manengos from the Upper Zambesi, who were passing through the
place, and who had several times traversed the country, he made them
also describe the localities; and to my satisfaction I found that their
delineations corresponded precisely with his.
Whatever I had that was new to Sepopo, he not only inquired of what
use it was, but almost invariably wanted to have it. He made a great
many inquiries about my compass. In order to explain its object I drew
a plan of the eastern hemisphere; and then pointing out Africa, showed
him the direction I took through the Bechuana countries.
I was invited to pay a visit to the royal kitchen, a department that
was under the superintendence of a woman, who had several assistants.
Everything was very clean, and the huge corn-bins were placed on
wooden stands in little separate huts made of matting and reeds. A
fire was kept continually burning on a low hearth in the courtyard, at
which, during the time of my visit, a servant was boiling a piece of
hippopotamus-flesh. The meat, which was nearly done, was afterwards
served on a large wooden dish, then cut up into fragments, placed upon
smaller dishes, and so sent in to the queen.
A messenger that evening arriving from Panda ma Tenka brought word
that Westbeech and another trader had arrived there from Shoshong,
and as I hoped to be off next morning, I sat up nearly all night to
work at my drawings. It was quite early when I was summoned to the
canoes which were to take me to Makumba’s landing-place, and then wait
for Westbeech. The passage down the river was just as pleasant as it
had been on the way up. I gave my chief attention to the different
varieties of birds, finding some interesting subjects for study in the
speckled black-and-white skimmers (_Rhynchopinæ_), with their
lower mandible much elongated, in the huge marabouts, and in the
fine kingfishers. The reeds were covered with snails, and the banks
literally perforated by crabs. Pools lay close together all along the
shore, the stream having fallen eighteen inches in the interval of the
few days since I had last passed over it.
[Illustration: ON THE SHORES OF THE ZAMBESI.]
We spent the night in a creek, starting off again betimes next morning.
The boatmen exerted themselves to their utmost, and our progress was
not much short of five miles an hour. On reaching Impalera I found that
Westbeech, with a considerable party, had arrived before me; they were
now on the point of starting to pay their respects to Sepopo. Their
waggons had been left at Panda ma Tenka.
Westbeech, who had married the daughter of a farmer in the Transvaal a
few months before, had his young wife with him, and was attended by his
clerk Bauren; Francis, the merchant who was travelling with him, had
likewise, according to his custom, brought his wife, who had already
done much to secure the respect both of the white residents and the
natives. They were accompanied by a distant relative named Oppenshaw,
who acted as Francis’s clerk. Besides Bauren, Westbeech had also
brought a man of the name of Walsh, who had formerly been a soldier,
and subsequently a gaoler in Cape Town; he was a proficient in the art
of preserving birds’-skins, and had come out to carry on business in
that way in the Zambesi district, under the arrangement that he was to
share his profits with Westbeech.
The two merchants were anxious to get their visit to Sepopo over as
quickly as possible that they might get back to Panda ma Tenka, and
start with their wives on a visit to the Victoria Falls. They had
brought with them all my correspondence, and I had welcome letters, not
only from home, but from various friends in the diamond-diggings. I
received about sixty newspapers, the broad white margins of which were
subsequently of great service to me, in the dearth of writing-paper;
amongst them was a copy of the _Diamond News_, containing my first
article on the subject of my present journey.
My own departure was somewhat delayed by Makumba’s absence from the
town; without his assistance I could not procure the bearers which,
after crossing the river, I should require to convey the articles that
I had collected in Sesheke, and the ivory which I had received from
Blockley as payment for my bullocks.
The passage across the river gave me no small amount of anxiety,
as independently of my uncertainty about getting bearers, I was
much concerned at finding a leak in the ferry-boat as large as my
fist, which threatened to do material injury to a good deal of my
property. Fortunately, however, on reaching the Leshumo valley I
again met Captains M’Leod and Fairly, the English officers, who most
considerately, during the time of their visit to Sepopo, allowed me the
use of their waggon to take me to Panda ma Tenka. I waited a little
while until the team could be fetched, and started off on the night of
the 3rd of September. As I went along I noticed that the burning of the
grass in the district had caused a diminution in the number of tsetse
fly, although the herbage was already beginning to sprout afresh.
When on the following day we reached the Gashuma Flat, we found
plenty of game still lurking in places where the grass had not been
burned. With the waggon were two horses that the English officers had
left in charge of a servant, who seemed to me unpardonably careless.
Notwithstanding my warnings, he would persist in riding on considerably
ahead. Approaching the baobab I told Pit and the driver to keep a sharp
look-out; I had a kind of presentiment that the horses might invite
an attack from the lion that was notoriously haunting the spot. We
had gone but a very short distance farther, when the driver called
out that he could see Captain M’Leod’s servant up in a tree and only
one horse beside him; another moment and his keen eye detected a lion
retreating to the bushes on our right; I was sitting on the box, and
almost immediately afterwards caught sight of the other horse lying
disembowelled on the ground, the few small wounds in the neck revealing
too clearly how the poor brute had met its end.
The servant’s tale was simple enough. About 300 yards from the tree he
had been attacked by the lion and thrown, whereupon the lion, taking
no notice of him, began the pursuit of his horse; the horse-cloth had
entangled itself in the horse’s legs, and the creature was quickly
overtaken and killed. The servant had betaken himself to the first
mapani-tree, where we found him. The other horse was grazing quietly
close at hand.
We all went some way in pursuit of the lion, but without success.