SECOND VISIT TO THE MARUTSE KINGDOM.
Departure for Impalera--A Masupia funeral--Sepopo’s
wives--Travelling plans--Flora and fauna of the Sesheke
woods--Arrival of a caravan--A fishing-excursion--Mashoku,
the king’s executioner--Masangu--The prophetic dance--Visit
from the queens--Blacksmith’s bellows--Crocodiles and
crocodile-tackle--The Mankoë--Constitution and officials
of the Marutse kingdom--A royal elephant-hunt--Excursion
to the woods--A buffalo-hunt--Chasing a lioness--The lion
dance--Mashukulumbe at Sepopo’s court--Moquai, the king’s
daughter--Marriage festivities.
[Illustration: HUNTING THE SPUR-WINGED GOOSE.]
When I found myself once again sitting in my waggon at Panda ma Tenka,
I occupied myself in writing my journal, but I was altogether much
dispirited and out of sorts, the continued pain in my feet tending in
no slight degree to aggravate my sense of depression. I was temporarily
cheered by the companionship of my good dog Niger, who returned to me
after having been left behind at the falls; but I felt very keenly the
prospect of soon losing him altogether for a time; I was unwilling
to expose him to the attacks of the tsetse-fly, and accordingly had
arranged for my Bamangwato servant, Meriko, to take him back with him
to Shoshong and confide him to the care of Mr. Mackenzie. Could I have
foreseen that I was parting with the creature finally, I would not have
suffered him to leave my side; I paid Meriko well to attend to him, and
took care that he had a proper supply of provisions, but unfortunately
it turned out that Mr. Mackenzie was away from home; poor Niger was
entrusted to a waggon-driver in the employ of Messrs. Francis and
Clark, who just then was starting for Grahamstown, and from that time
forward, notwithstanding all my inquiries, I never could ascertain what
became of him.
By this time I had come almost to the end of the stock of goods that I
had procured for bartering; it was absolutely necessary that the supply
should be replenished, and in spite of the exorbitant prices that were
asked I had no alternative but to buy what calico, cloth, and beads I
could.
On the 27th I had an attack of dysentery, which happily did not prove
very serious.
During my stay I made the acquaintance of a man named Henry W., who
came from the neighbourhood of Grahamstown; he was an experienced
hunter, but somehow or other I could not take to him; I could not get
over the barbarities which he permitted during his excursions. On one
occasion, after wounding a female elephant that had been pursuing him,
he allowed his servants to torture it for a couple of hours with their
assegais before he put the poor brute out of its miseries by shooting
it dead.
Although there had been no rain in the district for several months,
the two days before we left Panda ma Tenka were wet and stormy. When
we started we made but a very short progress on the first day, as my
baggage proved too heavy for the cart, and I was obliged to halt and
send back for a waggon; this did not arrive until the afternoon of the
following day, but we lost no time in moving forwards again, and spent
the night on the Gashuma Flat. Our encampment was an attraction to
several lions that prowled around, ready to pounce upon any animal that
might be scared from the enclosure.
Three out of my four servants spoke as many different dialects,
Sesupia, Setonga, and Senansa, but they all understood the
Sesuto-Serotse, so that from the chatter which they kept up I was able
to pick up a number of colloquial expressions.
A short distance before we reached Saddler’s Pan, one of Westbeech’s
servants had a narrow escape; having seen some zulu-hartebeests grazing
a little way off, he approached them by degrees, and was about to
fire when he found himself almost within the clutches of a lion that
was watching the very same herd. He was glad enough to make a timely
retreat.
Late in the evening of the 4th of October, all safe and sound we
reached the Leshumo valley. Next morning I sent my servants forward
to the Chobe, and as Westbeech had placed the eight donkeys at my
disposal, they took the greater part of my baggage. I myself followed
on later in the day, and on my way fell in with two English traders
named Brown and Cross, who were pleased to see me; they were returning
from a fruitless visit made in the hope of seeing Sepopo; they told me
that they had been fortunate enough to kill two magnificent lions, one
of them a full-grown male of the maneless species.
I found sixteen boatmen waiting my arrival at the Chobe, and next
morning Sepopo sent six more; they were to take both Westbeech’s
goods and mine to Sesheke, where the king was very anxious to inspect
everything, having been already informed that Westbeech had brought a
considerable number of elephant-guns. I should have been quite ready
to cross the river that same morning, but the wind was too high for
the passage to be attempted prudently; setting aside the prospect of
being capsized, which would have been sufficiently unpleasant, there
was the risk of falling a victim to the numerous crocodiles. I myself
subsequently witnessed some casualties of this kind at Sesheke.
Strolling about, I observed that the poisonous mushungulu-tree was now
in full bloom, covered with large crimson blossoms. On my way back from
my ramble my attention was arrested by a succession of gun-shots, which
I was told were part of a funeral ceremony that was then taking place.
A Masupia was being buried, and on an open space between two trees,
about 400 yards from the settlement, I saw a dozen or more men running
about wildly and letting off their guns, shouting aloud during every
interval between their shots: under one of the trees a number of people
were sitting drinking beer, and under the other tree was the grave that
had been just closed in.
The Masupias are accustomed to make their graves six or seven feet deep
and two feet wide, and to bury with the deceased his coat, his mattock,
and other weapons; a little corn is likewise thrown into the grave. The
friends always spend the rest of the day at the place of interment, and
if the buried man has been wealthy a large quantity of meat is consumed
as well as the beer. The shouting and running about and the discharge
of the guns are supposed to scare away the evil spirits from the spot.
I asked one of the bystanders how the person just buried had come by
his death; he only raised his eyes to signify that it was all owing to
Molemo.
In the course of the day some of the people brought in a quantity of
the flesh of a hippopotamus that they had killed; they considered it
quite a young animal, but its teeth were full ten inches long.
In the conveyance of my baggage to Makumba’s landing-place I was
assisted by a brother of the chief’s, named Ramusokotan; he resided
some miles further up the left bank of the Chobe, and was entrusted
with the duty of guarding the lower course of the river. On my way to
the landing-place I saw several pallah-gazelles, being twice so close
to them that I could observe all their movements.
The Zambesi was lower than I had seen it before. As we crossed it we
had a narrow escape of being upset by a hippopotamus, another of the
three animals of which Blockley had killed the largest on our previous
voyage to Sesheke. Remembering the spot, we were trying to pass along
as quietly as possible, when Westbeech’s boatmen felt a sudden jerk at
one of the paddles close under their canoe; the creature was probably
startled for the instant, and allowed the boat to proceed without
attacking it; the next moment, however, it made a furious dash towards
my boat, which was following close behind. But my men had fortunately
been put on their guard by the cries of Westbeech’s crew, and made so
vigorous a spurt that when the head of the hippopotamus emerged from
the water, it was several yards in the rear.
On arriving at Sesheke I was informed that I was at liberty, if I
liked, to occupy one of the new huts just erected by the king, but I
preferred accepting Westbeech’s invitation to take up my quarters in
his own courtyard, where Blockley also had put up a small warehouse for
himself. My first greeting from the king was that I had been too long
coming, that I was too late now, and that he could not keep his Marutse
men waiting for me; but I went to see him in the afternoon, and took
him a variety of little presents, which seemed to put him in a very
much better temper, and he was evidently pleased when I tried to speak
a few sentences to him in the Sesuto-Serotse language.
It was getting towards evening when Blockley called me out of my hut
to witness a curious scene. The king was receiving a visit from his
wives who resided in the Barotse valley, and from his daughter Moquai,
the Mabunda queen; they were arriving with about forty canoes, those
occupied by the royal ladies being covered in the middle by a mat to
protect them from the sun and rain. Many of the canoes had thirteen
oarsmen, who all rowed standing, such of them as did not convey
passengers being laden not only with great mats, pots, and provisions
for the way, but with baskets full of presents for the king.
[Illustration: KING SEPOPO.]
I called the next morning upon Captain M’Leod, Captain Fairly, and
Cowley, whom the king had accommodated in a round hut near the royal
enclosure; they were full of complaints because Sepopo persisted in
putting off the great elephant-hunt for which they had come the
second time. I also went with Westbeech to pay my respects to the
newly-arrived queens, most of whom he had already seen in the Barotse
valley. Amongst them was the chief wife, Mokena, or “mother of the
country.” Altogether I made acquaintance with sixteen of the wives.
Sepopo’s favourite was a Makololo named Lunga. The third wife was
Marishwati, the mother of Kaika, already nominated as the future
heiress to the throne. The fourth wife was named Makaloe; the fifth,
Uesi; the sixth, Liapaleng; then came Makkapelo, on whose account
two men were put to death in 1874; next in order were Mantaralucha,
Manatwa, Sybamba, and Kacindo. The twelfth was called Molechy; this
wife, as well as another named Sitan, had been all but drowned by
Sepopo for faithlessness.
A seducer of any of the royal wives is at once handed over to the
executioner’s assistants, with the instruction that he is “to be sent
to fetch buffalo-meat for the king,” meaning that he is to be taken to
the woods, and there assegaied. The mode of dealing with an adulterous
wife may be illustrated by Sepopo’s proceedings with Sitan. He ordered
a number of canoes full of people to push off into the middle of the
stream, taking his place in one of them with the culprit. He then had
her bound hand and foot, and ducked under the water repeatedly until
she became insensible; on her recovering consciousness, he asked her
to tell the people how she liked being drowned, and warned her that if
ever her offence should be repeated, he should simply put her under
water, and leave her there.
The fourteenth wife was Silala, and there were two others, but both
of these had been presented by the king to two of his chiefs. The
true heir to the throne had died two years previously. His name was
Maritella, and he was the son of Marishwati. Just before his death he
was lying on his bed, and complained of being thirsty, whereupon the
Barotse chieftain, who happened to be present, poured him out some
drink from a pitcher standing by; the lad died very soon afterwards,
and Sepopo immediately accused the chieftain of having poisoned him,
and condemned him, in spite of his being universally beloved by his
people, to be poisoned himself.
The king’s daughter, Moquai, had married Manengo, one of the few
Makololos who had survived the general massacre. The king of the
Makololos, Sepopo informed me, had died a miserable death, his body
having become a mass of ulcers, and after his demise the whole tribe
had been distracted by party squabbles.
I was determined to give the king no peace on the subject of my
journey, and on the 12th I had a long conference with him and the
Portuguese. He told me that although I might make up my mind to
stay only two days at each of the towns in the Barotse, the whole
boat-journey through his kingdom could not take me less than two
months, and that after I had reached the kingdom of the Iwan-yoe, where
I should find the sources of the Zambesi, I should have to go on for
about another nine weeks to get to Matimbundu.
I went more than once to visit the queens, and always found that they
were treated with great respect, their quarters being nearly always
surrounded by residents patiently waiting their turn to be admitted to
an audience.
On the 14th I received a visit from a dancer. The calves of his legs
were covered with bells made of fruit-shells, and his dancing consisted
of little more than shaking himself so that the bells were all set in
motion.
Amongst the other inmates of Sepopo’s court was a Mambari named
Kolintshintshi, who held the office of royal tailor; he had been taken
prisoner during one of the raids of the Marutse to the west; two
companions who had been captured at the same time had been restored
to their home after receiving a liberal present of cattle, whilst
Kolintshintshi had been detained.
During the time that I was delayed at Sesheke I took several
opportunities of rambling into the surrounding woods, and found a
number of trees and bushes that were quite new to me, whilst a great
proportion of the kinds that I had already seen in the Bechuana forests
appeared here to attain double the height that they did elsewhere.
Four-footed game was very plentiful, and I noticed a hartebeest with
flat compressed horns, different from any kind with which I was
acquainted. Birds, likewise, seemed tolerably numerous, and I found a
singular kind of bee-eater (_Merops Nubicus_), a grey medium-sized
hornbill, the great plotus, and two species of spurred plovers with
yellow wattles.
Returning from a walk I came across one of the caravans that arrive
from the more distant parts of the kingdom, bringing in the periodical
tribute for the king. It consisted of about thirty people, but very
often a caravan of this kind will include considerably more, because
whether the men come voluntarily, or under the compulsion of a chief,
they are always obliged to bring their whole households with them. On
making their entry into Sesheke the party was arranged mainly with
regard to the stature of the people who composed it; a leader went in
front, carrying nothing but his weapons and a great bell, which he
continued ringing without intermission; following him were the men
laden with the elephants’ tusks, the manza-roots, and the baskets of
fruit that composed the tribute; then came the women in charge of the
travelling-apparatus and provisions, the children all trudging on
behind.
On the 19th Westbeech, Bauren, Walsh, and myself made up a party to
go and fish in one of the lagoons. We arranged to go two and two in
separate boats, but we were so unlucky in our choice that we soon
found that we were in perpetual danger of losing our equilibrium, and
had to return and exchange into craft of safer dimensions. We had
an opportunity during our excursion to observe the way in which the
Marutse and Masupias manipulate their nets. Made of bast, with meshes
that are somewhat wide, each net is cast out with its ends secured
to two boats, which are stationed at a distance from each other, and
manned by four oarsmen apiece; when the net is sunk the two boats are
made to approach each other at the same point upon the shore where the
net is drawn up; the fish are stupified by being knocked with kiris,
and then brought to land.
We were witnesses on our way back of a scene that was anything but
pleasing. Some girls had been bathing in a creek, and one of them had
stolen some beads belonging to another. On discovering that she had
been robbed, the owner of the beads fell upon the unfortunate thief,
and belaboured her so savagely with the reeds that she tore from the
stream, that the culprit fell down and sued for mercy. A man who
was standing near attempted to interfere, but nothing could pacify
the anger of the infuriated girl; she persisted in administering
chastisement, and was not deterred from her violence till she had
actually snatched off the leather apron from the victim’s loins.
The same evening I was again invited to supper with the king. On this
occasion an episode took place which unfortunately was by no means
rare in Sepopo’s court, and which serves to illustrate his habitual
cruelty. It was about an hour after sundown, and there was no lack
of merriment in the royal enclosure. The king was sitting in his
usual fashion--crossed-legged upon a mat. The wives whose turn it was
to entertain him were on his right. On his left was spread another
mat for myself, his nephew, and his immediate attendants. The rest
of the company were arranged opposite to him, in a semicircle. The
intervening space was left free for Matungulu, the royal cup-bearer, to
dispense the honey-beer, a beverage peculiarly belonging to the court;
all honey, as crown property, being sent to the royal kitchen. Men,
moreover, are sent out to collect it by the aid of the honey-cuckoo,
their expeditions frequently lasting several days. The king took a
little draught of the beer, and handed the remainder to Lunga, his
favourite wife, with a remark universally supposed to be so witty,
that the whole assemblage, according to etiquette, burst into roars
of laughter. Meanwhile one of the inferior chiefs took advantage of
the noise to approach the king; and, clapping his hands gently without
cessation as he spoke, said: “There was a man in my village, my lord
king, too weak in his legs to hunt polocholo (game). It has pleased
Nyamba (the great god) that all his wives should die; so that he can
no longer procure any mabele (corn). This man has now come to settle
here with you in Sesheke; but he is old, very old, and his relations
are far away in the Barotse.” Sepopo nodded to signify that he quite
understood the story. While he had been listening, his eye had again
and again glanced towards a distant quarter, where the general crowd
were gathered; and when the chief ceased to speak, the king cried out
“Mashoku!” In an instant the executioner hastened towards him and
received his commission to take care that the old man should no longer
be permitted to be a burden to the neighbourhood.
Throughout the kingdom no one was more feared or more hated than the
executioner Mashoku. He was a Mabunda; but the peculiar aptitude he
had shown for his office had induced the king to raise him to the rank
of a chieftain. He was over six feet high, and of a massive build;
so ill-shaped, however, was his head, and so repulsive his cast of
countenance, that I could never do otherwise than associate him in my
mind with a hyæna.
Nothing could be more odious than the way in which Mashoku received his
orders. Crawling up on all fours to the royal presence, he grinned
with satisfaction at the instructions he received. He kept clapping his
hands softly while he was attending; and having taken a sip from the
goblet offered him by his royal master, he crawled back to his former
place. The king was in high good humour; and after a few more jokes,
retired to his bedchamber, whilst the band played their usual serenade
from their adjacent hut.
Only too faithfully was the king’s sentence carried out next morning.
Before it was light, five men wended their way towards the old man’s
hut, one of whom, Mashoku himself, went in and seized his victim
by the leg. Quite incapable of making any resistance, the poor man
trembled like a leaf. He was dragged off to the river-side, and there
thrust into a canoe that was lying in readiness. A few strokes of the
paddle brought it into midstream; and while three of the assistant
executioners kept it steady, Mashoku and the other man lifted the
helpless creature by the shoulders and legs, and held him in the water.
A gurgling noise, a few bubbles on the surface of the stream, and all
was over. The body was hauled back into the boat, to be thrown into the
water again at a spot near the bank where the king’s scavengers always
flung their refuse to the crocodiles.
Such is an example of the summary way in which Sepopo would dispose
of the friendless and infirm; and as the number of strangers that
gathered round the king at Sesheke was considerable, executions of
this kind were more frequent than in many other places. Under certain
rulers--such for instance as Sepopo’s grandfather, who was much
respected by the people--these cruelties fall into disuse, nor are
they often practised when a queen holds the reins of government.
Next day I paid a visit to Masangu, to whom, as being responsible
for the control of the guns distributed to the king’s vassals, I
have already given the designation of governor of the arsenal. He
was likewise superintendent of all the native smiths. I found him
employed in repairing a gun, for which he was using hammers, chisels,
pincers, and bellows, all of his own making, and of the most perfect
construction that I had yet seen in South Africa.
He asked me whether I had ever seen the Masupias dance, and drew my
attention to the sound of the drums in the royal courtyard. On hearing
that I had never been present when any dancing was going forward, he
invited me to go with him to the performance that was then about to
commence.
All the inhabitants of the Marutse kingdom are fond of dancing, most
of the tribes appearing to adopt a style peculiar to themselves. In
common with the Bechuanas they have a dance which is performed by girls
on reaching the age of maturity. This is repeated day after day for
weeks at a time, and, accompanied by singing and castanet playing, is
sometimes kept up till midnight, and is supposed to answer the design
of uniting the girls of the same age and born in the same neighbourhood
in a bond of friendship. There are also betrothal dances and elephant
dances, at which a great quantity of butshuala is consumed, the
ill-effects of which soon become apparent. On these occasions the
instruments of fan-palm are beaten very rapidly with reeds, the time
being marked by striking gloves of steel, or bells without clappers.
Besides these, again, there are the lion and leopard dances, which
are performed by hunters returning from successful expeditions, in
conjunction with the villagers, who go out to meet them. In an elephant
dance the king himself occasionally takes a part, as likewise in the
mokoro, or boat dance.
[Illustration: THE PROPHETIC DANCE OF THE MASUPIAS.]
That to which Masangu now invited me to accompany him was known as
“the prophetic dance.” It was one of several juggleries peculiar to
the Masupia tribe. The largest drums of the royal band are brought
out, and while they are beaten about thirty performers stand round,
singing and clapping their hands with all their might. Two men then
commence dancing in the middle of the open space, and continue their
performances for hours together, sometimes from sunrise to sunset, till
they sink down almost in a state of exhaustion. In this condition they
have to deliver their prophecies about any royal hunt or raid that may
be coming off. As a general rule these predictions are favourable,
and the dancers are rewarded with presents of beads or calico; but if
the event should belie the anticipation, they take good care to keep
themselves out of the way, to escape the chastisement that would be
sure to fall to their lot.
The two Masupia dancers that I saw had their heads, arms, and loins
fantastically adorned with the tails of gnus and zebras. The dance
itself seemed to consist principally in hopping from one foot to
another, varied by the performers occasionally laying themselves flat
on the ground, at one time falling suddenly, at another sinking so
gradually that no joint appeared to stir, although the head was kept
in a perpetual agitation. Attached to the calves of the legs were
little bells and a number of gourd-shells, which acted as rattles;
and when the dance is executed in their own homes, the Masupias very
often introduce some conjuring tricks, one of which consists in giving
a tremendous gash to the tongue, from which flows a stream of blood:
but the tongue is immediately afterwards exhibited, and shown to have
sustained no injury.
After having devoted some days to a general examination of the fish in
the Zambesi, I took an opportunity to make a more precise investigation
of several varieties, applying my attention particularly to the
sheat-fish (_Glanis siluris_), which, however, I could not
discover differed in any respect from the same species in the more
southern rivers, except that it was of a somewhat darker colour. We set
some ground-lines in places that appeared to be free from crocodiles,
and were successful in getting a very fair haul.
A loud clamour of women’s voices that broke the silence of the night
was explained to me to betoken that a Marutse had just died in the
village of Katan, a chief on the west. This was followed in the morning
by the discharge of guns, indicating that the deceased was being buried.
In the course of that day the king sent a boat to convey Blockley and
Bauren to Impalera, to enable them to start on their trading-expedition
to the territory of the Makololo prince Wankie. The offer, however,
of a single boat to carry a white man, several servants, and all the
merchandise, was regarded by Blockley as little less than an insult,
and did not tend to heal the unpleasantness which Sepopo’s recent want
of courtesy and consideration had provoked. He was not long in visiting
our quarters again, coming not only with his full band, but attended by
a company of 120 servants, that completely filled our courtyard, his
design evidently being to make us sensible how thoroughly we were in
his power.
[Illustration: VISIT OF THE QUEENS.]
Sepopo had hardly taken his departure, and I had seated myself to
finish some sketches that I had begun, when twelve of his queens
pushed into my hut. They had heard that I had taken the likenesses of
the king and his executioner, and were not only very curious to see
them, but anxious to learn how they were done. In their eagerness
to handle everything, I almost thought they would squeeze the breath
out of my body; one of them took hold of my pencil, several of them
felt the surface of my paper, whilst those behind, who could not see,
pushed those in front, till their breasts pressed against my shoulders.
Certainly they were more obtrusive in their behaviour than any of the
Bechuana or Zulu women that I had elsewhere seen. When the royal ladies
entered, one of our black servants, who was in the hut, prepared to
leave, but knowing the jealous disposition of the king, I thought it
advisable to make him remain where he was.
My guests remained with me for about half an hour, when they betook
themselves to the small warehouse next door, and began to pester
Westbeech very much as they had pestered me. As soon as they had gone,
I hung a mat over my doorway, leaving only aperture enough to admit
a little light, but the expedient was an utter failure; I had taken
much too moderate an estimate of woman’s curiosity. Almost immediately
afterwards one voice was heard, “Sikurumela mo’ ndu” (a curtain is hung
up), followed by another, “Nyaka chajo” (doctor gone out), and two of
the queens were inside, much disconcerted, no doubt, at finding the
doctor at home.
Altogether, I consider the Marutse to be the cleanest of all the South
African tribes that I came across. Although there are but few shallow
sandy spots in the river near the larger settlements, and even these
are dangerous on account of the crocodiles, the people will not allow
themselves to be deprived of their bath; if the stream is deep or the
bank precipitous, they pour the water over their heads. Washing is to
them an absolute necessity, and they rinse their mouths and clean their
hands after every meal.
I made an excursion on the 23rd to the plain known as Blockley’s kraal,
and there saw some puku, letshwe, and water-antelopes. The plain lies
under water during the floods; but at its edge, close to the woods, I
noticed a number of fields under cultivation; women and children were
digging, and men were felling trees, the clearance they made being an
enlargement of their master’s estate. On my way back I saw several
homesteads already finished, and close beside them some rude, conical
huts of grass and reeds, so slightly put together that they could have
taken only a few hours to construct. They were intended for the female
slaves, and were not allowed to have any enclosure, so that the ingress
and egress of their occupants might be under supervision.
Going into a hut next day I found a Mambari doing blacksmiths’ work
with some tools that Masangu had lent him; he was sharpening mattocks,
and kept his fire alive by means of a pair of the bellows that are in
ordinary use among the Marutse. These bellows were somewhat peculiar,
and may claim a detailed description. They had two compartments, formed
of circular boards covered with leather, and with an aperture in the
sides; these were alternately raised and lowered by handles, the air
being forced into two wooden tubes that ran parallel to each other into
the two compartments; fixed into the ends of the wooden tubes were two
shorter tubes made of antelopes’ horns, but these, instead of running
parallel, converged in front, and met in a clay nozzle, which was
applied to the fire.
I was taking an afternoon stroll along the river-side, when I saw a
crowd of natives manifestly in great excitement; it appeared that the
body of a girl, who had been killed by a crocodile a few days before,
had just been washed ashore. Crocodiles have the habit of drowning
human beings, or any animals that they are unable to swallow, by
holding them down at the bottom of the water until the cessation of
all struggling seems to make them aware that no resistance is to be
expected, when they open their jaws and let free their prey. Unless
one crocodile is assisted by another, it cannot by itself tear a fresh
corpse in pieces; but it has to wait until the process of decomposition
sets in, when the gaseous exhalations raise it to the surface in a
condition that permits it to be torn asunder and devoured piecemeal.
If a crocodile’s attention should be attracted by a fish, or anything
else that seems fit for food, it will forsake its larger prey in the
day-time, but only to return to it in the evening. I was told by Sepopo
and by many of his people, that these reptiles are more dangerous near
Sesheke than in most other parts of the kingdom. Shortly before my
arrival a man had been dragged by one of them from his boat, and a boy
of six years of age had been snapped up while bathing; and during my
stay I heard of no less than thirty deaths that were attributed to the
rapacity of these creatures.
Small crocodiles are occasionally caught by accident in the
fishing-nets; the larger ones have to be captured by an arrangement of
great hooks. The crocodile-tackle is very ingenious, and probably may
be more easily understood from an illustration than from any verbal
description. The bait which conceals the hook is covered by a net,
which is attached to a strong bast rope more than twelve feet long by a
number of twisted bast threads, the other end of the rope being wound
round a bundle of reeds that serves as a float. It is only now and then
when the casualties have been unusually numerous that the king gives
orders for the tackle to be brought into use, and then the bundle of
reeds is laid upon the bank; the hook is generally baited with a piece
of putrified dog’s flesh, of which the Marutse believe the crocodile
to be especially fond, and is supported on a tripod of reeds, three
or four feet above the water, and almost close to its edge. After a
crocodile has scented the bait, it usually hovers round it for a long
time, sometimes until late in the evening, before it makes a snap at
it; but when it attempts to swallow it, the projecting points of the
hook prevent the closing of the jaws, and the water rushing into the
throat and windpipe makes the brute sink to the bottom, where it soon
becomes exhausted; its carcase floats down the stream, either towards
the shore or against a sandbank, its position being indicated by the
float which it drags after it. Two or three crocodiles have been
repeatedly known to be taken in this way during a single night from the
setting of five hooks. Except they are found alive on the hook, or are
accidentally wounded by fishermen or hunters, they are never speared.
Crocodile-snares, like fishing-nets, are all royal property.
On one occasion, when the hooks had been baited overnight, I went down
to the river to ascertain the result, and met three large canoes with
two men apiece, each of them conveying the carcase of a crocodile big
enough to contain a human body. As soon as the carcases were brought to
shore, some of Sepopo’s people proceeded to cut off their heads; the
eyelids, the coverings of the nostrils, and a few of the scales from
the ridge of the back were reserved for the king, to be used as charms.
I did what I could to induce the crowd that had found the body of the
poor girl to have it buried, but my pleading was to no purpose; her
relatives declared that it was Nyambe’s will that the crocodile should
seize her, and therefore the crocodile must be allowed to have her. The
body was accordingly left to be devoured at sunset.
Queen Lunga took an opportunity of calling upon me, to introduce her
daughter Nyama. She was a girl of fourteen, and had just been married
to Sepopo’s eldest son, Monalula, who was half an idiot. Before the
wedding she had been sent to reside with her mother and some other of
the royal wives in a retired hut in a neighbouring wood, where she was
made to fast, and to spend her time in working and in learning her
domestic duties; her hair meanwhile had been all shaved off, except an
oval patch that was rubbed with manganese. Nyama’s father was Sekeletu,
the Makololo prince.
In one of my next rambles through the woods, I came upon a little
Mankoë settlement. The people were perhaps the finest men in the
Marutse empire. They had long, woolly hair, which they combed up
high, giving their heads the effect of being larger than they
really were. Their purpose in coming to Sesheke was to assist the
king in his projected great hunting-excursion. I noticed that their
travelling-utensils of horn and wood were ornamented with carvings
scarcely inferior in execution to those of the Mabundas. The four huts
in which they were residing were about seven feet in height, and the
same in width, and were arranged in the shape of a horseshoe. On my
way back I saw several graves of Masupia chieftains, all adorned with
ivory; I likewise noticed some calabashes, with sticks thrust right
through them, resting mouth downwards on a small ant-hill, and filled
with pulverized bone. They were supposed by the Marutse to bring rain.
From a conversation with Sepopo I gathered some information about
the constitution of the country and the ranks of the officials. The
hierarchy may be divided into four classes; first, the officers of
state; secondly, the koshi or viceroys of the tribes in the different
provinces; thirdly, the kosanas or makosanas, sub-chieftains who serve
under the koshi; and lastly, the personal attendants of the king, whose
rank may be said to be intermediate between the two latter classes.
The officers of state were, first, the commander-in-chief, who in
Sepopo’s time was a Marutse relation of his named Kapella, and whom
he afterwards condemned to death; secondly, there was the controller
of the arsenal, having, as I have explained, the supervision of the
ammunition and guns distributed to the vassals, an office that under
Sepopo was shared by two Masupias, Masango and Ramakocan; next there
was the captain of the body-guard, a post then held by Sepopo’s cousin,
Monalula, but whose services were only required in time of war; and
fourthly, the captain of the younger warriors, who had the command of
a special division of the army during a campaign; this office was at
present held by a man named Sibendi.
The second class of officials includes all the governors of the more
important provinces. They are invested with both civil and military
powers. In some of the more extensive districts, as the Barotse, there
are several of these chiefs appointed, but they are all subordinate
to the one who is chosen to reside at the principal town, and in all
cases they are accountable to the head governor of the Barotse, who is
regarded as ranking next to the king. In Sepopo’s time this office was
filled by Inkambella.
Officials of the third grade were such as held control as
deputy-viceroys over separate towns or small villages where
cattle-breeding, hunting, or fishing, was carried on in behalf of the
king. Their principal duty was to look to the proper payment of the
royal tribute; the contribution of cereal products was ordinarily sent
to the koshi, who were responsible for forwarding it to the sovereign.
It is the law of the land that when a vassal kills a head of game,
and even when a freeman slaughters any of his own cattle, the breast
must be given to the kosana, or must be sent to the koshi if he should
happen to be in the neighbourhood, or must be reserved for the king
himself when the royal residence is within reach. The law likewise
demands that all matters of importance should be submitted at once to
the deputies, who refer them to their superiors to transmit, if need
be, to the king himself.
Dignitaries of what I have called the fourth class comprise what may
be designated as the king’s privy-council. Nominally they are reputed
to rank below the koshi, but practically the monarch holds them as
their superiors; they include the state executioner, five or six
private physicians, the royal cup-bearer, one or two detectives, the
superintendent of the fishermen, and the overseer of the canoes. There
was likewise a kind of council belonging to Moquai. Although the king
had virtually withdrawn the sovereignty from his daughter, the Mabunda
people persisted in regarding her as their proper ruler, and she was
allowed to retain her court-retinue, of whom her husband, Manengo, was
the head; she had moreover a chancellor and a captain of the guard,
both of whom were appointed viceroys in her dominions. I myself made
the acquaintance of Sambe, her premier, as well as of several of her
chiefs, Nubiana a Marutse, Moquele, Mokoro, and two Masupias, Monamori
and Simalumba.
Sepopo had both a privy-council and a general council. Under a queen
a privy-council has no existence at all, and in Sepopo’s hands it was
entirely his tool, composed of men as cruel as himself. Nor in his time
was the general council itself, made up mainly of state officials,
much better than a farce; whatever decisions it might arrive at, and
whatever sentences it might pass, were completely overruled in the
other chamber. Besides the state officials the larger council always
included any chiefs or subordinate governors who might be resident near
the royal quarters.
Although Sepopo had several times changed his residence he had
hitherto generally succeeded in getting a council fairly amenable to
his authority; recently, however, his barbarities, and especially
the wholesale way in which he was putting people to death upon the
slightest pretext, had brought about a spirit of dissatisfaction.
Conscious of the growing opposition, the king proceeded to yet greater
severity in his dealings, and condemned a number of the leading
counsellors, both of the Marutse and Barotse kingdoms, to be executed,
an arbitrary measure which only served to hasten his downfall.
By the tribes of the Marutse kingdom in general the larger council
was held in high esteem, the privy-council being regarded only with
detestation and servile fear.
In Sepopo’s employment there were likewise two old wizen-looking
magicians or doctors, Liva and his brother, who exercised almost a
supreme control over state affairs. They had practised their craft for
more than sixty years; they had served under previous sovereigns, and
their experience enabled them now to minister to Sepopo’s suspicions,
to manage his temper, and to foster his superstitions. They enjoyed a
kind of hereditary reputation, as in spite of the atrocities which they
were known to have encouraged, they were regarded by the various tribes
with awe rather than with hatred. That there had not been a revolt
long ago against Sepopo’s tyranny was mainly to be attributed to the
belief that he had those in his secret council who could divine any
plot beforehand and frustrate any stratagem that could be devised, and
even when his despotism grew so great that the life of the highest in
the kingdom was not secure for a day, not a man could be found to lift
an assegai against him. At last it happened that a certain charm which
he had publicly exhibited and proclaimed to be infallible failed to
produce its proper effect; scales as it were fell from the eyes of the
populace; they discerned that all his pretensions were hypocrisy and
deceit, and proceeded forthwith to expel him from the throne.
The elephant-hunt, so long talked of, came off on the 27th. At dawn of
day all Sesheke was in commotion; the royal courtyard, where the king
was distributing powder and shot, was so full of men equipped for
the excursion that I could only with difficulty make my way across.
I hurried to tell my English friends the news, but I found that they
had already been apprised of the hunt by one of the chiefs, and that
although they had not been invited by the king, they were preparing to
join the throng. The excitement between the royal enclosure and the
river was very great; as the people ran backwards and forwards they
shouted and laughed, and I had never seen them in such high spirits
and so generally blithe and genial. A hunt on this extensive scale
was very rare; the present occasion had been anticipated for months,
and it had a special interest of its own from the circumstance that
some white men and the king himself were to take part in the sport.
Long rows of canoes lined the river bank, another flotilla having
collected on the opposite side, the crews on the sand ready to embark
at a moment’s notice. Hurrying on their way to the Kashteja to await
the arrival of canoes to take them across were caravans of men,
chiefly Mankoë, Mabundas, and Western Makalakas; every chief made his
own people arrange themselves in proper order, and despatched the
proper contingent to look after the embarkation of the clothes and
water-vessels, and especially to look to the guns, which necessarily
engrossed a good deal of attention.
As the king was leaving his residence he was confronted by the party
of Englishmen, who remonstrated with him very severely because he had
failed to keep his promise of inviting them to the hunt. His behaviour
towards them had really been abominable. After endeavouring to fall
in with his wishes in every way, and having twice come from Panda ma
Tenka on purpose, and, moreover, having submitted to be fleeced by him
till they had little more than the clothes on their backs, they now
found that he was about to start without them. This could not be. No
doubt Sepopo had his own motives for his conduct; he was accustomed to
consider all elephants as his own property, whether shot by himself or
not, and probably he was anxious to conceal what numbers of elephants
there were in the country, lest the visits of white men should become
too frequent; but he was bound to keep his word, and at length, in
deference to the representations of some of the chiefs who were in
attendance, he consented that the three sportsmen, as well as a trader
named Dorehill, who had paid him a visit the year before, should have a
canoe placed at their disposal.
It was about noon when the king and his flotilla started off. He was
accompanied by his band, and at least two hundred canoes set out
from Sesheke alone, apart from those that joined at other parts of
the river. It was with no little reluctance that I refrained from
going, but I considered it prudent to do nothing to arouse Sepopo’s
suspicions, and feared that by taking part in the hunt I might lead him
to suppose that my proposed expedition in his country had some design
of interfering with the elephants.
My general rule at this time was to spend my evenings with Westbeech,
where with his assistance I tried to converse with the natives, and
gathered many particulars about their manners and customs. In his hut I
met a Marutse named Uana ea Nyambe, i. e. the child of God, who prided
himself very much upon his wisdom, and was often consulted by Sepopo.
On the 29th I stayed at home to keep guard while Westbeech and his
servant went out hunting; they were more fortunate than I had been on
my last excursion, and returned with a letshwebock that had no less
than ten bullets in its body. I believe that the muscles of the neck
are more strongly developed in this species of antelope than in any
other.
The next day we received a visit from several Marutse who had their
foreheads and chests tied up with bandages of snake-skin, to keep
off pain, as they explained; they told us that they not unfrequently
fastened the bandages round their waists to allay the pangs of hunger;
the Makololos use leather straps, and the Matabele strips of calico for
the same purpose.
Two boatmen came in a little before sunset to fetch some provisions for
the white men on the hunting-ground; they reported that hitherto the
chase had been somewhat unsuccessful, but that it was to be resumed in
the morning. But about another hour later we were much surprised to see
Cowley and Dorehill turn up; they were disappointed, and consequently
angry; they told us that they had been stationed in a reed-thicket with
the king and the principal members of his suite, and had been waiting
for the elephants to be driven up; Sepopo, however, grew so impatient
that he fired while the herd was more than sixty yards distant; the
consequence was that they immediately took to flight; there were nearly
800 huntsmen following the king, and almost as many beaters, and when
the elephants began to run, a sort of panic seized everybody, guns
were fired in every direction, often without an aim at all, and in
the general pell-mell it was no great wonder that only five elephants
should be killed altogether. Cowley and Dorehill affirmed that they
had been obliged to throw themselves on the ground to escape the
random volley of shot; and they declared, moreover, that the beaters
had utterly failed in their work, which would have been done far more
effectually by a couple of Masarwas than by the whole host of them. The
king had given vent to his anger at the bungling in his usual fashion
by thrashing every one within reach with a heavy stick till his arm
ached. Before starting, he had been smeared with a variety of ointments
which he called a “molemo” to give him influence over the elephants.
Wishing to make rather a longer excursion into the Sesheke woods than
I had previously done, I started off before sunrise, and having passed
the site of Old Sesheke, turned to the west. On my left lay the Zambesi
valley, an apparently boundless plain overgrown with trees and clumps
of reeds, and intersected in various places by side-arms of the river,
some of them several miles in length. The woods to which I was bending
my way were about twenty feet above the level of the water. Some of
the lagoons extended right up to the trees, stretching along the edge
of the forest for miles, though the river itself was at an average
distance of three miles away. Near one of the lagoons I saw a couple
of darters, and very singular their appearance was as they perched
upon a bare projecting bough, their stumpy bodies and short legs being
quite out of proportion to their long, thin necks, that never rested
from their snake-like contortions; but a still stranger sight it is
to see them swim, the whole of the body being immersed and nothing
but the upper part of the neck with the head and sharp beak visible
above the water. Until arriving at the Zambesi, I had not seen the
darter (_Plotus congensis_) since I left the eastern parts of Cape
Colony. In a way that is scarcely credible without being witnessed,
their long, narrow throats are capable of swallowing fish as large
as a man’s hand. I shot several, but they all fell into the water,
and as the lagoons abounded with crocodiles, it was not without risk
that I and my four servants contrived to fish them out again. Shortly
afterwards I shot a _Francolinus nudicollis_.
Noticing some buffalo tracks that apparently led down to the river I
determined to follow them, and found that they soon turned back to
the woods, past a native village. We continued our way about three
miles beyond this, when we observed how the grass alongside the tracks
had been quite recently eaten away, and drew an inference that the
buffaloes were not likely to be far distant, and that we ought to be on
our guard; the trees around us were not of any great height, but the
underwood was dense, and the bushes round the glades were rather thick,
so that our progress was not at all easy.
We kept on our way, however, and at length came to a spot where the
tracks were so unmistakably new, that it was certain the buffaloes must
be close at hand. We moved forwards with increased caution, keeping
only a few yards apart.
“Narri! narri!” (buffalo! buffalo!) suddenly whispered Chukuru, and
beckoned to us to halt.
“Kia hassibone narri,” (I see no buffalo), I answered, and kept on.
But Chukuru touched me on my shoulder as a sign that I should crouch
down; the others took the hint and concealed themselves instantly in
the grass.
“Okay?” (where) I asked.
He pointed to four dark objects lying on the ground about 120 yards
distant. There could be no mistake. They were four buffaloes. One of
them had its head towards me. I took aim and fired; up jumped every
one to see the effect. Up sprang the buffaloes, and made off in a
gallop. One of them however lagged behind; it rolled over for a moment,
but sprang up quickly and overtook the rest; then again it seemed to
linger. We had no doubt that it had been wounded, but whether mortally
or not we could not tell.
Nothing can exceed the cunning that a buffalo will exhibit when it is
wounded or infuriated. Having better powers of discrimination, it is
more wary than a hippopotamus, and consequently is not so dangerous to
an unarmed man, but once provoked it will fight to the bitter end. It
generally makes a little retreat, and conceals itself behind a bush,
where it waits for the hunter, and when he comes up makes a dash at
him. Attacks of this kind are by no means unfrequent, and huntsmen of
considerable experience have been known to be outwitted and seriously
injured by these South African buffaloes. Sometimes the angry brute
will content itself with tossing its victim into the air, in which case
the mischief is generally limited to the dislocation or fracture of a
limb, but far more often it holds its antagonist down upon the ground,
whilst with its feet it tramples him to death. I heard of an instance
on the Limpopo, where a white man and three negroes were killed, and a
fourth negro much injured, all by a single buffalo bull.
The buffaloes of which we were in pursuit came to a standstill after
about 200 yards; the leader of them turned, and seemed to be scenting
us out; then again they started off, but after a very short run the one
that was wounded fell behind and appeared anxious to conceal itself
under the shelter of a tree. I made my servants approach and attract
its attention, while I crept up unobserved till I was within proper
range, when I immediately discharged both my barrels. The first shot
entered the breast, the second hit the shoulder; and tottering forwards
on to the open ground, the animal almost directly fell upon its knees.
With shouts of glee my servants ran up to the spot, but on discovering
that the buffalo was not dead, they were careful not to go too near,
nor would I allow them to touch it until I had contrived to get
sufficiently close to send a bullet behind its ear, when it fell back
powerless, and its limbs were stiffened in death. The delight of my
negroes was unbounded; they danced round the carcase for a few minutes,
and then set to work to light a fire, at which they roasted the best
part of the heart, and cutting off one of the feet toasted the marrow.
Illustration: CHASE OF THE WATER-ANTELOPE.
_Page 249._]
I went home with one of the men in the evening, leaving the rest to
dismember the buffalo’s body. There were many lion-tracks about, and
as they cut up the joints they were obliged to hang them up out of the
lions’ reach. In the midst of their operations a heavy storm came
on, which made it quite impossible for them to light a fire, so that
they were themselves obliged to spend the night on the branches of a
tree.
Before I reached my quarters the wind had begun to blow violently,
and just as I was entering the town, I saw a boat capsize with two
fishermen and a quantity of fish. Fortunately the men managed to get
safely to shore, but the surface of the water was covered with the dead
fish, which the current carried inland. In a moment, almost like magic,
from every direction there started up a crowd of boys, who began taking
possession of the unexpected haul; they tore off their leather aprons,
and were filling them with the best and biggest they could find, when
all of a sudden their mirth was checked, and they were as eager to
scramble out of the water as they had been to plunge in. The well-known
red coat of the overseer of the fishermen had been observed in the
distance, and the dread of the thick stick of that important official
was for the tribe of juvenile freebooters a sufficient notice to quit.
The next morning I was somewhat startled by seeing a large number of
men all carrying arms, and hastening towards the woods. I was beginning
to wonder whether there had been an alarm of some enemy approaching,
when the mystery was solved by the arrival of some young men with a
message from their chief that they were going out on a lion-hunt, and
inviting us to join them. Four lions had made an attack upon the royal
herds, and had killed four cows.
The scene of the disaster was not far away. About 150 yards above our
courtyard the Zambesi made a sudden bend from west to north, and then,
after awhile, turned at right angles to the east, past New Sesheke; on
the opposite side at this last bend was a lagoon that branched off into
two arms, and it was on the strip of land between these that the havoc
had been committed. Neither Westbeech nor Walsh cared to join the hunt,
but I and Cowley accepted the invitation.
Cowley was a good-natured young fellow of eighteen, with a face round
and rosy as a girl’s; his manners were very genial, and he had nothing
to spoil him, except perhaps a little weakness in his desire to be a
Gordon Cumming; he had already killed two lions, and was quite ready to
risk his life in adding a third to the number.
Although about 170 natives had assembled with their chief, only four of
them were provided with guns. It was not much more than half an hour
after I had received my invitation that I arrived at the lagoon, where
the whole troop advanced to meet us. It had been already decided that
the track of the largest lion should be followed, and the herdsmen were
being questioned about the details of the attack. It appeared that they
had thought it impossible for any lions to come so near the town, and
leaving their herds in a place that was quite unenclosed, they had all
gone to sleep in some huts close by.
I understood that it is only when lions have done some injury that the
Marutse ever go out to attack them.
Our arrival was the signal to commence operations. The procession was
opened by a few natives and a couple of dogs that were put on the
liontrack; Maranzian, the chief, went next, followed by Cowley and
myself; the rest of the throng came on without much order behind. But
it was only in the open places that any particular rank could be kept;
the thorn-bushes were often so thick that even the dogs could hardly
make their way through, and every one got forward as best he could.
The bushes however hardly impeded us so much, or were so uncomfortable
as the tall reeds in the dried-up hollows. We persevered for more than
an hour without coming in sight of our prey, and the negroes began
to joke about the lion feeling itself guilty, and said that it was
ashamed to show its face, and glad to hide away; but on leaving the
next hollow the dogs commenced growling angrily, and made a rush into
another hollow beyond again, about ten feet deep and thirty feet wide.
The condition of the trail satisfied us that the lion was concealed
here close at hand. We made the crowd of natives halt, Maranzian and I
hastened round to the farther side and prepared to fire, Cowley staying
on the nearer side, and sending the dogs into the reeds; but we schemed
to no purpose, the baying of the hounds made us aware that the lion had
got round behind us, and we were obliged to change our position.
Followed by the throng, we proceeded to the open space beyond the
reeds, close to the spot in which we imagined that the lion was now
concealed, and having chosen our places where we thought we had the
best chance of firing at it on its escape, we made the whole crowd
shout to the top of their voices, and throw in bits of wood; and when
that proved ineffectual we ordered them, whether they liked it or not,
to go into the thicket and rummage about with their spears.
It was a very pandemonium. The screaming and yelling of the negroes was
quite unearthly, and the noise seemed to grow louder and more frightful
as their courage increased at not finding any lion to alarm them.
Maranzian, with his four men that had guns, was standing about twenty
yards in front of me. We were beginning to think that we were again
baulked, when, like a flash of lightning, a lioness made a tremendous
spring out of its concealment, and then another spring as sudden into
the very midst of the excited crowd of hunters. There were so many of
them scattered about between me and the angry brute, that it was out
of the question to think of firing, and it made a third bound, and
disappeared into another thicket close behind; it knocked over several
of the men, but fortunately it did not hurt any of them seriously.
Without the loss of a moment, Maranzian sent his men to drive the
lioness to the very extremity of her new retreat. It rather surprised
us to find the dogs perfectly silent as we followed them into the
thicket, but before long we heard them barking vehemently in the open
ground beyond; they had driven out the brute, and were in full pursuit.
As he saw the lioness bounding away in the distance, with the dogs at
her heels, Cowley was terribly chagrined at having abandoned his former
position, and sighed over his lost chance of adding to his rising
renown as a lion-hunter.
[Illustration: LION HUNT NEAR SESHEKE.
_Page 253._]
Only an artist’s pencil could properly depict the scene at this moment.
The plain was more than half a mile long, and nearly as wide; bushwood
enclosed it on the north, reed-thickets on the south and west;
far in front was the fugitive lioness; the dogs were pressing on at
various intervals, whilst the frantic crowd of well-nigh 200 negroes
was scampering in the rear; nothing could be imagined more motley
than their appearance; their aprons of white, or check, or brown, or
red contributed a variety of colour; their leather mantles on their
shoulders fluttered wildly in the wind; many of them brandished their
assegais as if ready for action; others kept them balanced evenly in
their hands; some of them continued to yell at the very top of their
voices, and a few could be heard chanting, as if by anticipation, the
strains of the lion-dance.
The climax was now at hand, and full of excitement it was. Again the
lioness took refuge in a triangular thicket, with its vertex farthest
from us. Close beside it was a sandbank, some ten feet high. Maranzian,
with a number of men, placed himself on the right side of the thicket;
I took up my position on the left, Cowley stationing himself on the
sandbank at a point where he conceived the lioness when pressed by the
negroes would try to escape. By encouraging words, and where words
failed by the free use of a stout stick, Maranzian made a lot of the
men go and ransack the reeds, and as they tumbled about they gave the
place almost the aspect of a battle-field. The excitement became more
intense when there remained but one little corner of the thicket to
be explored. Now or never the lioness must be found. Suddenly there
was an angry growl, and the beast leaped towards the pursuers. A shot
was fired at that moment, but it only struck the sand; the negroes,
taken by surprise, fell back, some of them disappearing altogether, a
few of them desperately hurling their spears. Once again the lioness
retreated, and when the natives had recovered themselves, they saw her
crouching down as if prepared for another spring. Here was my chance;
catching sight of her head, I took deliberate aim and fired; my shot
took good effect, and at the same time a couple of spears hit her on
the side. One more growl and she was dead.
It was only for greater precaution that Cowley and I, before we
permitted the carcase to be moved, each put another bullet into it, but
it was subsequently pierced by more than twenty spears; many of the
negroes, as they approached the lifeless body, thrust the points of
their assegais into it, muttering some mysterious formula. As it was
the king’s cattle that had been slaughtered by the lions, the skull of
the brute we had now killed would be employed as a charm, and hung up
in the royal kraal.
Cowley and I returned home, leaving the carcase to be brought in
afterwards. When it arrived it was received with much shouting and
singing. It was carried by four of the strongest of the men on a couple
of poles, its paws tied together, and its head hanging down well-nigh
to the ground; it was brought into the town just as my own servants
were returning with the buffalo-meat, and a large proportion of the
male population turned out to greet the hunters. The next thing to be
done was to beat the lion-drums, and to announce that the lion-dance
would be performed. The procession advanced in two groups, one
consisting of the bearers, with the carcase as a trophy of success;
the other being the hunters. The leader of the expedition opened the
dance, and he was followed by such of the huntsmen as had been nearest
at the death; they were accompanied in their performance by the beating
of a drum. The dancers next gave a representation of the lion-hunt,
running in all directions, and pretending to hurl their spears; the
singing was taken up by the two groups alternately, and though it was
not so monotonous as some that I heard at other times, yet any melody
it might have had was utterly destroyed by the painful discord of the
instruments that accompanied it.
After the body of the lioness had been deposited on the ground under a
mimosa, we took the opportunity of investigating the wounds. It turned
out that my first bullet had passed completely along the left side of
the skull, and that immediately on receiving it the wounded beast had
fallen so as to leave only the lower part of its face exposed; this
we had both struck, and we traced one bullet into the vertebræ of the
neck, while the other, Cowley’s we presumed, had shivered the lower
skull-bone to splinters.
In making my memoranda of this lion-hunt I used up the last of my
writing-paper; it was some that Westbeech had torn out of his own
journal and given me. It was now that I found the newspapers that I had
received from Shoshong very useful; the parts that were printed on were
very serviceable for pressing plants, and I was only too glad to fasten
the margins together into sheets by means of mimosa-gum, and to use
them for writing on.
After our hunting triumph Maranzian honoured me with a visit next day.
In the course of his conversation with Westbeech and myself, he gave
us some fresh information about the Barotse, the mother country of the
Marutse. Noticing how I made entries in my “lungalo” (book) of all that
I had seen in Sesheke, he told me that when I got to the towns of the
Barotse I should see many objects much more worthy of being recorded;
the buildings, he assured me, were very superior, and he referred
especially to the monuments of the kings. What he described, added
to what I had heard from Westbeech, as well as from the king, from
Moquai, from the chiefs Rattan and Ramakocan, and from the Portuguese,
only served to increase the longing with which I looked forward to the
journey before me. The conversation afterwards turned upon Maritella,
the heir to the throne, who had died. Maranzian said that after his
death the king had had all the cattle from the town and environs driven
to the grave, and left standing there until they bellowed with hunger
and thirst; whereupon he exclaimed: “See, how the very cattle are
mourning for my son!”
When the king returned from his great hunting-expedition he was
extremely discontented with the result, and consequently very much
out of temper. On one of the days the party had sighted more than a
hundred elephants in the swamps near Impalera, but although at least
10,000 shots had been fired only four elephants had been killed. I
called to see him and he showed me the tusks that had been brought
back; there were two weighing 60 lbs., six between 25 lbs. and 30 lbs.,
four small female tusks, and four from animals so small that they were
comparatively of no value. The two largest tusks had been much injured
by the bullets.
On the 7th I started off on the longest pedestrian excursion I had yet
taken, rambling on for fifty-two miles. Leaving Sesheke in good time,
I crossed the western part of Blockley’s kraal and made my way to the
Kashteja, where I had to go a long way up the stream before I could
find a fording-place. The lower part of this affluent of the Zambesi is
flat and meadow-like and bordered with underwood. On my way thither I
noticed zebras, striped-gnus, letshwe and puku antelopes, and rietbock
and steinbock gazelles. In the river-valley itself the orbekis and
rietbocks had congregated in herds, a mode of living which I had never
seen before, nor do I think that any other hunter had.
Altogether dissatisfied with their visit to Sesheke, the English
officers were now very anxious to leave; but Sepopo would not provide
them with canoes, and though they urged their request again on the
following day, they were again refused. Blockley returned from Panda ma
Tenka on the 9th. I was much pleased to greet once more a man who had
shown me so much kindness; and I accompanied him when he paid his visit
to Sepopo.
The king at length rejoiced my heart by acceding to my long-cherished
wishes; he told me that Moquai and the queens who had come from the
Barotse country were about to return, and that I was at liberty to go
with them. Fellow-travellers more influential than these distinguished
ladies could not be desired.
On my next visit to Sepopo I found the royal courtyard crowded with
people. As soon as I entered the house the king asked me whether I had
ever seen any Mashukulumbe; and understanding that I had not, he took
me by the hand and introduced me to six men who were squatting on the
ground. Their appearance was strange, and seemed to invite a careful
scrutiny. Their skin was almost black, and their noses generally
aquiline, though they had an effeminate cast of countenance, to be
attributed very much to their lack of beard and to the sinking in of
the upper lip. All hair was carefully removed from every part of their
bodies, except the top of the skull, where it was mounted up in a very
remarkable fashion.
[Illustration: MASHUKULUMBE AT THE COURT OF KING SEPOPO.
_Page 258._]
The Mashukulumbe, Sepopo informed me, were the people who lived to
the north and east of his territory; and the men who had now arrived
were ambassadors who were sent every year to the Marutse court with
complimentary presents, and who would go back in a few weeks carrying
other presents in return. When at home they go perfectly naked, the
women wearing nothing but a little leather strap, hung with bells and
fastened round their waists. Their pride is their _coiffure_,
which consists of a conical chignon that fits tight round the head,
and is composed of vertical rolls or horizontal tiers, the tresses
being most ingeniously plaited together, sometimes crossing and
recrossing each other, sometimes kept quite parallel; the whole being
finally matted together with gum, which gives it the appearance of
really growing from the crown of the head. But this is by no means
the case; the hair that is periodically shaved off the entire body,
except from the patch of ten or twelve inches in circumference on the
head, is all carefully preserved until enough has been accumulated
for the headgear; and the master of the house will not unfrequently
add the hair of his wives and slaves, twisting it up into bands that
are intertwined with his own. I saw a coiffure twelve inches round,
worked into a tail more than a yard long that inclined towards the
right shoulder; so that every time the man moved, and especially when
he stooped, the headdress appeared to be toppling over with him. The
average height to which the hair was trained was about ten inches;
but in all cases the unusual weight upon the skull had the effect of
developing the muscles of the temples till they stood out like cords,
not unfrequently as thick as one’s finger. The falling in of the top
lip was caused by extracting the upper incisor-teeth, an operation with
the Mashukulumbe that corresponds with the boguera of the Bechuanas,
and is practised upon youths when attaining the state of manhood,
being part of their discipline. One of the Makalaka tribes north of
the Zambesi, as well as the Matongas on its bank, break out their top
incisor-teeth from the sheerest vanity. Their women say that it is only
horses that eat with all their teeth, and that men ought not to eat
like horses.
With the help of his attendants, the king was engaged in manufacturing
a musical instrument out of the leaf-ribs of a saro-palm. Except just
at the ends, the concave surface was hollowed into a furrow, the
convex side underneath being scored with a number of little incisions
about the thirtieth part of an inch in width. When played, the
instrument is struck with small sticks, and is used particularly at the
elephant-dance.
Westbeech, Dorehill, and Cowley left on the 10th for Panda ma Tenka;
but Sepopo still refused to provide any canoes for the English
officers, who were becoming more impatient than ever to get away.
On the 11th he had a mokoro, or boat-dance, executed through the town.
It was supposed to represent a boating-excursion, the principal feature
being a boat-song that was sung in chorus. On this occasion the king
himself took the leading part, and went through all the gesticulations
of a steersman, whilst about seventy of his people had to follow him
and imitate the movements of rowers.
Not doubting that the English officers would very soon be permitted to
depart, I had devoted some time to the preparation of several articles
for insertion in various journals in England and at home; but I now
began to fear that the opportunity of entrusting my correspondence to
their charge would be again deferred. At length, however, the desired
boats were forthcoming, and they were suffered to take their departure.
Sepopo made a last effort to detain them, but finally yielded to their
solicitations. The boatmen, taking their cue from the king, were at
first inclined to be disagreeable; but I interfered and checked their
insolence, and they were all brought to reason before the officers
proceeded on their way.
My next excursion was towards the north-east. I shot a steinbock, and
secured a good variety of coleoptera.
Rising before daybreak on the 21st, I set out on a ramble to the
north, not returning till after sunset. The dew in the morning was
very heavy; and I was tired in the evening by my long exertions;
but I was amply compensated for all inconvenience and fatigue by the
many objects of interest that I saw and collected. Many parts of the
wood were overgrown with a tall spreading shrub covered with large
white blossoms that perfumed the air with their fragrance. In one
of the glades I found two new kinds of lilies, one with a handsome
violet-coloured flower. A leaf-beetle of a yellow-ochre tint had
settled on the other lily; and I likewise discovered another species
with red and blue stripes, and two new species of weevils on the young
sprouts of the musetta bushes. As I went back I caught three sorts of
little rose-beetles on the white-flowering shrubs; and in a dry grassy
hollow I found the species of _Lytta_ which I had already seen in
Sechele’s country during my second journey.
Having arranged to join a buffalo-hunt on the 24th, I retired to my hut
rather earlier than usual on the previous evening; and it was scarcely
nine o’clock when I was roused by a noise like sounds of weeping coming
from the river. At first I did not take any particular heed; but
finding that the noise continued, and that there was a murmur of voices
that seemed to increase, I had the curiosity to send Narri, one of my
servants, to ascertain the cause of the disturbance. In a few minutes
he came running back with the news that Queen Moquai was having one of
her maids drowned. Unable to believe that she could be capable of such
an act, I hurried out, determined to convince myself by the testimony
of my own eyes before I would credit so shameful a report.
A crowd of men and women, brawling, screeching, and laughing, was
gathered on the shore; and just as I arrived, the body of a girl,
apparently lifeless, was being lifted up the bank. In a few moments,
however, she recovered consciousness and was dragged away towards
Moquai’s quarters.
I followed in the train, and as I went I elicited the facts of the
case. The girl was a slave of Moquai’s, and on the day before had been
informed by her mistress that she was to marry a hideous old Marutse
wood-carver. Folding her hands upon her breast, she had expressed her
desire to be submissive as far as she could, but was quite unable to
conceal her aversion to the husband that had been chosen for her;
she burst into piteous sobs, which had the effect of making the
queen extremely angry, and she dismissed the girl from her presence.
Altogether unused to have her wishes questioned, the queen presently
had the girl recalled. Again she protested that she was anxious to
serve her mistress with all fidelity, but pleaded that she might have
nothing to do with the odious old man she was expected to marry.
Moquai’s fury had known no bounds; she had sent for the proposed
bridegroom, and given him instructions to carry off the girl that very
night from the royal hut to the river, to hold her under the water till
she was half dead, and thence to take her to his own quarters, where
she would wake up again a “mosari”--a married woman.
The orders were duly executed; and I had not been awake long next
morning before I heard the singing and beating of drums that betokened
that the nuptial dance was being performed in Moquai’s courtyard before
the door of the newlymarried pair. On going to the spot I found ten
men kicking up their heels and slowly twisting themselves round in
an oval course, while a man in the middle pirouetted in the contrary
direction, and beat time with the bough of a tree; they all wore aprons
of roughly-tanned leather, mostly the skins of lynxes and grey foxes,
and many of them had the calves of their legs, as in the other dances,
covered with bells or fruit-shells. The singing of the man in the
middle was accompanied by the beating of two of the large drums; and
four more dancers were squatted on the ground, ready to relieve any of
the ten men that were tired out. Two boys of about ten years of age
were amongst the dancers; and various passers-by stayed and took a turn
at the performance for the sake of having a share in the kaffir-corn
beer which the queen would distribute when the dance was over. Every
now and then the whole of the dancers would put shoulder to shoulder,
sing aloud in chorus, and quicken their pace to a great rapidity. The
dance would be repeated at intervals for no less than three days.
I passed the place again on the afternoon of the following day as I
was on my way back from the woods, and found the huts appropriated to
the attendants in the queen’s enclosure still in a state of uproar;
there was still the group of dancers; a number of extra performers were
drinking from the brimming pitchers of butshuala that were continually
replenished; while many spectators, attracted by the sound of the
drums, added the hum of their voices to the general merriment. The
unfortunate bride alone seemed to have no enjoyment of the festivity;
dejected and miserable, she sat in front of her hut, with her head
resting on her hands, and her eyes gazing vacantly towards the next
enclosure; manifestly she neither saw nor heard anything that was going
on.
A day or two afterwards we were surprised by a serenade from Sepopo and
Moquai, who were accompanied by a band of eight musicians, including
two performers on the myrimbas, or gourd-shell pianos, and four on the
morupas, or long drums. Not to offend the king, I stayed at home all
day.
[Illustration: SEPOPO’S DOCTOR.]
At noon on the following day Westbeech returned from Panda ma Tenka
with guns for the king. Two Portuguese also made their appearance in
the town. They called themselves Señhores; but one was as black as a
Mambari, though he indignantly repudiated the appellation. His name
was Francis Roquette, and including some black women, he had twenty
servants in his train, who all had their woolly hair shaved off, except
a small tuft standing up at the top of their head like a back-comb.
Both the Portuguese had arrived from the north, having come from one of
the Mashukulumbe countries, where they had bartered the great bulk of
their goods, and had brought the small residue to Sesheke, consisting
of flint-guns, cases of coarse gunpowder, some lead and iron bullets,
and a little calico.
[Illustration: A MABUNDA.]
[Illustration: A MAKOLOLO.]
Long before this time my servants had finished making the canvas
coverings for my baggage; and as far as I was concerned I was ready
to set out. It was therefore with unbounded satisfaction that I saw
the council-chamber being furbished up, the great drums being put into
readiness, and the various other indications that the queens were
really about to take their departure.
Expectation was not much longer deferred. On the 1st of December I
started on the expedition for which I had waited so eagerly and so
long.