Low Hills -- Black
Soldier-Ants; their Cannibalism -- The Plasterer and its Chloroform --
White Ants; their Usefulness -- Mutokwane-smoking; its Effects -- Border
Territory -- Healthy Table-lands -- Geological Formation -- Cicadae --
Trees -- Flowers -- River Kalomo -- Physical Conformation of Country --
Ridges, sanatoria -- A wounded Buffalo assisted -- Buffalo-bird --
Rhinoceros-bird -- Leaders of Herds -- The Honey-guide -- The White
Mountain -- Mozuma River -- Sebituane's old Home -- Hostile Village --
Prophetic Phrensy -- Food of the Elephant -- Ant-hills -- Friendly Batoka
-- Clothing despised -- Method of Salutation -- Wild Fruits -- The Captive
released -- Longings for Peace -- Pingola's Conquests -- The Village of
Monze -- Aspect of the Country -- Visit from the Chief Monze and his Wife
-- Central healthy Locations -- Friendly Feelings of the People in
reference to a white Resident -- Fertility of the Soil -- Bashukulompo
Mode of dressing their Hair -- Gratitude of the Prisoner we released --
Kindness and Remarks of Monze's Sister -- Dip of the Rocks -- Vegetation
-- Generosity of the Inhabitants -- Their Anxiety for Medicine --
Hooping-cough -- Birds and Rain.
NOVEMBER 27TH. Still at
Marimba's. In the adjacent country palms abound, but none of that species
which yields the oil; indeed, that is met with only near the coast. There
are numbers of flowers and bulbs just shooting up from the soil. The
surface is rough, and broken into gullies; and, though the country is
parched, it has not that appearance, so many trees having put forth their
fresh green leaves at the time the rains ought to have come. Among the
rest stands the mola, with its dark brownish-green color and spreading
oak-like form. In the distance there are ranges of low hills. On the north
we have one called Kanjele, and to the east that of Kaonka, to which we
proceed to-morrow.
We have made a considerable
detour to the north, both on account of our wish to avoid the tsetse and
to visit the people. Those of Kaonka are the last Batoka we shall meet, in
friendship with the Makololo. Walking down to the forest, after telling
these poor people, for the first time in their lives, that the Son of God
had so loved them as to come down from heaven to save them, I observed
many regiments of black soldier-ants returning from their marauding
expeditions. These I have often noticed before in different parts of the
country; and as we had, even at Kolobeng, an opportunity of observing
their habits, I may give a short account of them here. They are black,
with a slight tinge of gray, about half an inch in length, and on the line
of march appear three or four abreast; when disturbed, they utter a
distinct hissing or chirping sound. They follow a few leaders who never
carry any thing, and they seem to be guided by a scent left on the path by
the leaders; for, happening once to throw the water from my basin behind a
bush where I was dressing, it lighted on the path by which a regiment had
passed before I began my toilette, and when they returned they were
totally at a loss to find the way home, though they continued searching
for it nearly half an hour. It was found only by one making a long circuit
round the wetted spot. The scent may have indicated also the propriety of
their going in one direction only. If a handful of earth is thrown on the
path at the middle of the regiment, either on its way home or abroad,
those behind it are completely at a loss as to their farther progress.
Whatever it may be that guides them, they seem only to know that they are
not to return, for they come up to the handful of earth, but will not
cross it, though not a quarter of an inch high. They wheel round and
regain their path again, but never think of retreating to the nest, or to
the place where they have been stealing.
After a quarter of an
hour's confusion and hissing, one may make a circuit of a foot round the
earth, and soon all follow in that roundabout way. When on their way to
attack the abode of the white ants, the latter may be observed rushing
about in a state of great perturbation. The black leaders, distinguished
from the rest by their greater size, especially in the region of the
sting, then seize the white ants one by one, and inflict a sting, which
seems to inject a portion of fluid similar in effect to chloroform, as it
renders them insensible, but not dead, and only able to move one or two
front legs. As the leaders toss them on one side, the rank and file seize
them and carry them off. One morning I saw a party going forth on what has
been supposed to be a slave-hunting expedition. They came to a stick,
which, being inclosed in a white-ant gallery, I knew contained numbers of
this insect; but I was surprised to see the black soldiers passing without
touching it. I lifted up the stick and broke a portion of the gallery, and
then laid it across the path in the middle of the black regiment.
The white ants, when
uncovered, scampered about with great celerity, hiding themselves under
the leaves, but attracted little attention from the black marauders till
one of the leaders caught them, and, applying his sting, laid them in an
instant on one side in a state of coma; the others then promptly seized
them and rushed off. On first observing these marauding insects at
Kolobeng, I had the idea, imbibed from a work of no less authority than
Brougham's Paley, that they seized the white ants in order to make them
slaves; but, having rescued a number of captives, I placed them aside, and
found that they never recovered from the state of insensibility into which
they had been thrown by the leaders. I supposed then that the
insensibility had been caused by the soldiers holding the necks of the
white ants too tightly with their mandibles, as that is the way they seize
them; but even the pupae which I took from the soldier-ants, though placed
in a favorable temperature, never became developed. In addition to this,
if any one examines the orifice by which the black ant enters his
barracks, he will always find a little heap of hard heads and legs of
white ants, showing that these black ruffians are a grade lower than
slave-stealers, being actually cannibals. Elsewhere I have seen a body of
them removing their eggs from a place in which they were likely to be
flooded by the rains; I calculated their numbers to be 1260; they carried
their eggs a certain distance, then laid them down, when others took them
and carried them farther on. Every ant in the colony seemed to be employed
in this laborious occupation, yet there was not a white slave-ant among
them. One cold morning I observed a band of another species of black ant
returning each with a captive; there could be no doubt of their cannibal
propensities, for the "brutal soldiery" had already deprived the white
ants of their legs. The fluid in the stings of this species is of an
intensely acid taste. I had often noticed the stupefaction produced by the
injection of a fluid from the sting of certain insects before. It is
particularly observable in a hymenopterous insect called the "plasterer"
(`Pelopaeus Eckloni'), which in his habits resembles somewhat the
mason-bee. It is about an inch and a quarter in length, jet black in
color, and may be observed coming into houses, carrying in its fore legs a
pellet of soft plaster about the size of a pea. When it has fixed upon a
convenient spot for its dwelling, it forms a cell about the same length as
its body, plastering the walls so as to be quite thin and smooth inside.
When this is finished, all except a round hole, it brings seven or eight
caterpillars or spiders, each of which is rendered insensible, but not
killed, by the fluid from its sting. These it deposits in the cell, and
then one of its own larvae, which, as it grows, finds food quite fresh.
The insects are in a state of coma, but the presence of vitality prevents
putridity, or that drying up which would otherwise take place in this
climate. By the time the young insect is full grown and its wings
completely developed, the food is done. It then pierces the wall of its
cell at the former door, or place last filled up by its parent, flies off,
and begins life for itself. The plasterer is a most useful insect, as it
acts as a check on the inordinate increase of caterpillars and spiders. It
may often be seen with a caterpillar or even a cricket much larger than
itself, but they lie perfectly still after the injection of chloroform,
and the plasterer, placing a row of legs on each side of the body, uses
both legs and wings in trailing the victim along. The fluid in each case
is, I suppose, designed to cause insensibility, and likewise act as an
antiseptic, the death of the victims being without pain.
Without these black
soldier-ants the country would be overrun by the white ants; they are so
extremely prolific, and nothing can exceed the energy with which they
work. They perform a most important part in the economy of nature by
burying vegetable matter as quickly beneath the soil as the ferocious red
ant does dead animal substances. The white ant keeps generally out of
sight, and works under galleries constructed by night to screen them from
the observation of birds. At some given signal, however, I never could
ascertain what, they rush out by hundreds, and the sound of their
mandibles cutting grass into lengths may be heard like a gentle wind
murmuring through the leaves of the trees. They drag these pieces to the
doors of their abodes, and after some hours' toil leave off work, and many
of the bits of grass may be seen collected around the orifice. They
continue out of sight for perhaps a month, but they are never idle. On one
occasion, a good bundle of grass was laid down for my bed on a spot which
was quite smooth and destitute of plants. The ants at once sounded the
call to a good supply of grass. I heard them incessantly nibbling and
carrying away all that night; and they continued all next day (Sunday),
and all that night too, with unabated energy. They had thus been
thirty-six hours at it, and seemed as fresh as ever. In some situations,
if we remained a day, they devoured the grass beneath my mat, and would
have eaten that too had we not laid down more grass. At some of their
operations they beat time in a curious manner. Hundreds of them are
engaged in building a large tube, and they wish to beat it smooth. At a
signal, they all give three or four energetic beats on the plaster in
unison. It produces a sound like the dropping of rain off a bush when
touched.
These insects are the chief
agents employed in forming a fertile soil. But for their labors, the
tropical forests, bad as they are now with fallen trees, would be a
thousand times worse. They would be impassable on account of the heaps of
dead vegetation lying on the surface, and emitting worse effluvia than the
comparatively small unburied collections do now. When one looks at the
wonderful adaptations throughout creation, and the varied operations
carried on with such wisdom and skill, the idea of second causes looks
clumsy. We are viewing the direct handiwork of Him who is the one and only
Power in the universe; wonderful in counsel; in whom we all live, and
move, and have our being.
The Batoka of these parts
are very degraded in their appearance, and are not likely to improve,
either physically or mentally, while so much addicted to smoking the
mutokwane (`Cannabis sativa'). They like its narcotic effects, though the
violent fit of coughing which follows a couple of puffs of smoke appears
distressing, and causes a feeling of disgust in the spectator. This is not
diminished on seeing the usual practice of taking a mouthful of water, and
squirting it out together with the smoke, then uttering a string of
half-incoherent sentences, usually in self-praise. This pernicious weed is
extensively used in all the tribes of the interior. It causes a species of
phrensy, and Sebituane's soldiers, on coming in sight of their enemies,
sat down and smoked it, in order that they might make an effective
onslaught.
I was unable to prevail on
Sekeletu and the young Makololo to forego its use, although they can not
point to an old man in the tribe who has been addicted to this indulgence.
I believe it was the proximate cause of Sebituane's last illness, for it
sometimes occasions pneumonia. Never having tried it, I can not describe
the pleasurable effects it is said to produce, but the hashish in use
among the Turks is simply an extract of the same plant, and that, like
opium, produces different effects on different individuals. Some view
every thing as if looking in through the wide end of a telescope, and
others, in passing over a straw, lift up their feet as if about to cross
the trunk of a tree. The Portuguese in Angola have such a belief in its
deleterious effects that the use of it by a slave is considered a crime.
NOVEMBER 28TH. The
inhabitants of the last of Kaonka's villages complained of being plundered
by the independent Batoka. The tribes in front of this are regarded by the
Makololo as in a state of rebellion. I promised to speak to the rebels on
the subject, and enjoined on Kaonka the duty of giving them no offense.
According to Sekeletu's order, Kaonka gave us the tribute of maize-corn
and ground-nuts, which would otherwise have gone to Linyanti. This had
been done at every village, and we thereby saved the people the trouble of
a journey to the capital. My own Batoka had brought away such loads of
provisions from their homes that we were in no want of food.
After leaving Kaonka we
traveled over an uninhabited, gently undulating, and most beautiful
district, the border territory between those who accept and those who
reject the sway of the Makololo. The face of the country appears as if in
long waves, running north and south. There are no rivers, though water
stands in pools in the hollows.
We were now come into the
country which my people all magnify as a perfect paradise. Sebituane was
driven from it by the Matebele. It suited him exactly for cattle, corn,
and health. The soil is dry, and often a reddish sand; there are few
trees, but fine large shady ones stand dotted here and there over the
country where towns formerly stood. One of the fig family I measured, and
found to be forty feet in circumference; the heart had been burned out,
and some one had made a lodging in it, for we saw the remains of a bed and
a fire. The sight of the open country, with the increased altitude we were
attaining, was most refreshing to the spirits. Large game abound. We see
in the distance buffaloes, elands, hartebeest, gnus, and elephants, all
very tame, as no one disturbs them. Lions, which always accompany other
large animals, roared about us, but, as it was moonlight, there was no
danger. In the evening, while standing on a mass of granite, one began to
roar at me, though it was still light. The temperature was pleasant, as
the rains, though not universal, had fallen in many places. It was very
cloudy, preventing observations. The temperature at 6 A.M. was 70 Deg., at
midday 90 Deg., in the evening 84 Deg. This is very pleasant on the high
lands, with but little moisture in the air. The different rocks to the
westward of Kaonka's, talcose gneiss and white mica schist, generally dip
toward the west, but at Kaonka's, large rounded masses of granite,
containing black mica, began to appear. The outer rind of it inclines to
peel off, and large crystals project on the exposed surface.
In passing through some
parts where a good shower of rain has fallen, the stridulous piercing
notes of the cicadae are perfectly deafening; a drab-colored cricket joins
the chorus with a sharp sound, which has as little modulation as the drone
of a Scottish bagpipe. I could not conceive how so small a thing could
raise such a sound; it seemed to make the ground over it thrill. When
cicadae, crickets, and frogs unite, their music may be heard at the
distance of a quarter of a mile. A tree attracted my attention as new, the
leaves being like those of an acacia, but the ends of the branches from
which they grew resembled closely oblong fir-cones. The corn-poppy was
abundant, and many of the trees, flowering bulbs, and plants were
identical with those in Pungo Andongo. A flower as white as the snowdrop
now begins to appear, and farther on it spots the whole sward with its
beautiful pure white. A fresh crop appears every morning, and if the day
is cloudy they do not expand till the afternoon. In an hour or so they
droop and die. They are named by the natives, from their shape, "Tlaku ea
pitse", hoof of zebra. I carried several of the somewhat bulbous roots of
this pretty flower till I reached the Mauritius.
On the 30th we crossed the
River Kalomo, which is about 50 yards broad, and is the only stream that
never dries up on this ridge. The current is rapid, and its course is
toward the south, as it joins the Zambesi at some distance below the
falls. The Unguesi and Lekone, with their feeders, flow westward, this
river to the south, and all those to which we are about to come take an
easterly direction. We were thus at the apex of the ridge, and found that,
as water boiled at 202 Deg., our altitude above the level of the sea was
over 5000 feet. Here the granite crops out again in great rounded masses
which change the dip of the gneiss and mica schist rocks from the westward
to the eastward. In crossing the western ridge I mentioned the clay shale
or keele formation, a section of which we have in the valley of the
Quango: the strata there lie nearly horizontal, but on this ridge the
granite seems to have been the active agent of elevation, for the rocks,
both on its east and west, abut against it.
Both eastern and western
ridges are known to be comparatively salubrious, and in this respect, as
well as in the general aspect of the country, they resemble that most
healthy of all healthy climates, the interior of South Africa, near and
adjacent to the Desert. This ridge has neither fountain nor marsh upon it,
and east of the Kalomo we look upon treeless undulating plains covered
with short grass. From a point somewhat near to the great falls, this
ridge or oblong mound trends away to the northeast, and there treeless
elevated plains again appear. Then again the ridge is said to bend away
from the falls to the southeast, the Mashona country, or rather their
mountains, appearing, according to Mr. Moffat, about four days east of
Matlokotloko, the present residence of Mosilikatse. In reference to this
ridge he makes the interesting remark, "I observed a number of the Angora
goat, most of them being white; and their long soft hair, covering their
entire bodies to the ground, made them look like animals moving along
without feet." [Moffat's "Visit to Mosilikatse". -- Royal Geographical
Society's Journal, vol. xxvi., p. 96.]
It is impossible to say how
much farther to the north these subtending ridges may stretch. There is
reason to believe that, though the same general form of country obtains,
they are not flanked by abrupt hills between the latitude 12 Deg. south
and the equator. The inquiry is worthy the attention of travelers. As they
are known to be favorable to health, the Makololo, who have been nearly
all cut off by fevers in the valley, declaring that here they never had a
headache, they may even be recommended as a sanatorium for those whose
enterprise leads them into Africa, either for the advancement of
scientific knowledge, or for the purposes of trade or benevolence. In the
case of the eastern ridge, we have water carriage, with only one short
rapid as an obstruction, right up to its base; and if a quick passage can
be effected during the healthy part of the year, there would be no danger
of loss of health during a long stay on these high lands afterward. How
much farther do these high ridges extend? The eastern one seems to bend in
considerably toward the great falls; and the strike of the rocks
indicating that, farther to the N.N.E. than my investigations extend, it
may not, at a few degrees of latitude beyond, be more than 300 or 350
miles from the coast. They at least merit inquiry, for they afford a
prospect to Europeans of situations superior in point of salubrity to any
of those on the coast; and so on the western side of the continent; for it
is a fact that many parts in the interior of Angola, which were formerly
thought to be unhealthy on account of their distance inland, have been
found, as population advanced, to be the most healthy spots in the
country. Did the great Niger expedition turn back when near such a
desirable position for its stricken and prostrate members?
The distances from top to
top of the ridges may be about 10 Deg. of longitude, or 600 geographical
miles. I can not hear of a hill ON either ridge, and there are scarcely
any in the space inclosed by them. The Monakadze is the highest, but that
is not more than a thousand feet above the flat valley. On account of this
want of hills in the part of the country which, by gentle undulations,
leads one insensibly up to an altitude of 5000 feet above the level of the
sea, I have adopted the agricultural term ridges, for they partake very
much of the character of the oblong mounds with which we are all familiar.
And we shall yet see that the mountains which are met with outside these
ridges are only a low fringe, many of which are not of much greater
altitude than even the bottom of the great central valley. If we leave out
of view the greater breadth of the central basin at other parts, and speak
only of the comparatively narrow part formed by the bend to the westward
of the eastern ridge, we might say that the form of this region is a broad
furrow in the middle, with an elevated ridge about 200 miles broad on
either side, the land sloping thence, on both sides, to the sea. If I am
right in believing the granite to be the cause of the elevation of this
ridge, the direction in which the strike of the rocks trends to the N.N.E.
may indicate that the same geological structure prevails farther north,
and two or three lakes which exist in that direction may be of exactly the
same nature with Lake Ngami, having been diminished to their present size
by the same kind of agency as that which formed the falls of Victoria.
We met an elephant on the
Kalomo which had no tusks. This is as rare a thing in Africa as it is to
find them with tusks in Ceylon. As soon as she saw us she made off. It is
remarkable to see the fear of man operating even on this huge beast.
Buffaloes abound, and we see large herds of them feeding in all directions
by day. When much disturbed by man they retire into the densest parts of
the forest, and feed by night only. We secured a fine large bull by
crawling close to a herd. When shot, he fell down, and the rest, not
seeing their enemy, gazed about, wondering where the danger lay. The
others came back to it, and, when we showed ourselves, much to the
amusement of my companions, they lifted him up with their horns, and, half
supporting him in the crowd, bore him away. All these wild animals usually
gore a wounded companion, and expel him from the herd; even zebras bite
and kick an unfortunate or a diseased one. It is intended by this instinct
that none but the perfect and healthy ones should propagate the species.
In this case they manifested their usual propensity to gore the wounded,
but our appearance at that moment caused them to take flight, and this,
with the goring being continued a little, gave my men the impression that
they were helping away their wounded companion. He was shot between the
fourth and fifth ribs; the ball passed through both lungs and a rib on the
opposite side, and then lodged beneath the skin. But, though it was eight
ounces in weight, yet he ran off some distance, and was secured only by
the people driving him into a pool of water and killing him there with
their spears. The herd ran away in the direction of our camp, and then
came bounding past us again. We took refuge on a large ant-hill, and as
they rushed by us at full gallop I had a good opportunity of seeing that
the leader of a herd of about sixty was an old cow; all the others allowed
her a full half-length in their front. On her withers sat about twenty
buffalo-birds (`Textor erythrorhynchus', Smith), which act the part of
guardian spirits to the animals. When the buffalo is quietly feeding, this
bird may be seen hopping on the ground picking up food, or sitting on its
back ridding it of the insects with which their skins are sometimes
infested. The sight of the bird being much more acute than that of the
buffalo, it is soon alarmed by the approach of any danger, and, flying up,
the buffaloes instantly raise their heads to discover the cause which has
led to the sudden flight of their guardian. They sometimes accompany the
buffaloes in their flight on the wing, at other times they sit as above
described.
Another African bird,
namely, the `Buphaga Africana', attends the rhinoceros for a similar
purpose. It is called "kala" in the language of the Bechuanas. When these
people wish to express their dependence upon another, they address him as
"my rhinoceros", as if they were the birds. The satellites of a chief go
by the same name. This bird can not be said to depend entirely on the
insects on that animal, for its hard, hairless skin is a protection
against all except a few spotted ticks; but it seems to be attached to the
beast, somewhat as the domestic dog is to man; and while the buffalo is
alarmed by the sudden flying up of its sentinel, the rhinoceros, not
having keen sight, but an acute ear, is warned by the cry of its
associate, the `Buphaga Africana'.
The rhinoceros feeds by
night, and its sentinel is frequently heard in the morning uttering its
well-known call, as it searches for its bulky companion. One species of
this bird, observed in Angola, possesses a bill of a peculiar scoop or
stone forceps form, as if intended only to tear off insects from the skin;
and its claws are as sharp as needles, enabling it to hang on to an
animal's ear while performing a useful service within it. This sharpness
of the claws allows the bird to cling to the nearly insensible cuticle
without irritating the nerves of pain on the true skin, exactly as a burr
does to the human hand; but in the case of the `Buphaga Africana' and
`erythrorhyncha', other food is partaken of, for we observed flocks of
them roosting on the reeds, in spots where neither tame nor wild animals
were to be found.
The most wary animal in a
herd is generally the "leader". When it is shot the others often seem at a
loss what to do, and stop in a state of bewilderment. I have seen them
attempt to follow each other and appear quite confused, no one knowing for
half a minute or more where to direct the flight. On one occasion I
happened to shoot the leader, a young zebra mare, which at some former
time had been bitten on the hind leg by a carnivorous animal, and, thereby
made unusually wary, had, in consequence, become a leader. If they see
either one of their own herd or any other animal taking to flight, wild
animals invariably flee. The most timid thus naturally leads the rest. It
is not any other peculiarity, but simply this provision, which is given
them for the preservation of the race.
The great increase of
wariness which is seen to occur when the females bring forth their young,
causes all the leaders to be at that time females; and there is a
probability that the separation of sexes into distinct herds, which is
annually observed in many antelopes, arises from the simple fact that the
greater caution of the she antelopes is partaken of only by the young
males, and their more frequent flights now have the effect of leaving the
old males behind. I am inclined to believe this, because, though the
antelopes, as the pallahs, etc., are frequently in separate herds, they
are never seen in the act of expelling the males. There may be some other
reason in the case of the elephants; but the male and female elephants are
never seen in one herd. The young males remain with their dams only until
they are full grown; and so constantly is the separation maintained, that
any one familiar with them, on seeing a picture with the sexes mixed,
would immediately conclude that the artist had made it from his
imagination, and not from sight.
DECEMBER 2, 1855. We
remained near a small hill, called Maundo, where we began to be frequently
invited by the honey-guide (`Cuculus indicator'). Wishing to ascertain the
truth of the native assertion that this bird is a deceiver, and by its
call sometimes leads to a wild beast and not to honey, I inquired if any
of my men had ever been led by this friendly little bird to any thing else
than what its name implies. Only one of the 114 could say he had been led
to an elephant instead of a hive, like myself with the black rhinoceros
mentioned before. I am quite convinced that the majority of people who
commit themselves to its guidance are led to honey, and to it alone.
On the 3d we crossed the
River Mozuma, or River of Dila, having traveled through a beautifully
undulating pastoral country. To the south, and a little east of this,
stands the hill Taba Cheu, or "White Mountain", from a mass of white rock,
probably dolomite, on its top. But none of the hills are of any great
altitude. When I heard this mountain described at Linyanti I thought the
glistening substance might be snow, and my informants were so loud in
their assertions of its exceeding great altitude that I was startled with
the idea; but I had quite forgotten that I was speaking with men who had
been accustomed to plains, and knew nothing of very high mountains. When I
inquired what the white substance was, they at once replied it was a kind
of rock. I expected to have come nearer to it, and would have ascended it;
but we were led to go to the northeast. Yet I doubt not that the native
testimony of its being stone is true. The distant ranges of hills which
line the banks of the Zambesi on the southeast, and landscapes which
permit the eye to range over twenty or thirty miles at a time, with short
grass under our feet, were especially refreshing sights to those who had
traveled for months together over the confined views of the flat forest,
and among the tangled rank herbage of the great valley.
The Mozuma, or River of
Dila, was the first water-course which indicated that we were now on the
slopes toward the eastern coast. It contained no flowing water, but
revealed in its banks what gave me great pleasure at the time -- pieces of
lignite, possibly indicating the existence of a mineral, namely, coal, the
want of which in the central country I had always deplored. Again and
again we came to the ruins of large towns, containing the only
hieroglyphics of this country, worn mill-stones, with the round ball of
quartz with which the grinding was effected. Great numbers of these balls
were lying about, showing that the depopulation had been the result of
war; for, had the people removed in peace, they would have taken the balls
with them.
At the River of Dila we saw
the spot where Sebituane lived, and Sekwebu pointed out the heaps of bones
of cattle which the Makololo had been obliged to slaughter after
performing a march with great herds captured from the Batoka through a
patch of the fatal tsetse. When Sebituane saw the symptoms of the poison,
he gave orders to his people to eat the cattle. He still had vast numbers;
and when the Matebele, crossing the Zambesi opposite this part, came to
attack him, he invited the Batoka to take repossession of their herds, he
having so many as to be unable to guide them in their flight. The country
was at that time exceedingly rich in cattle, and, besides pasturage, it is
all well adapted for the cultivation of native produce. Being on the
eastern slope of the ridge, it receives more rain than any part of the
westward. Sekwebu had been instructed to point out to me the advantages of
this position for a settlement, as that which all the Makololo had never
ceased to regret. It needed no eulogy from Sekwebu; I admired it myself,
and the enjoyment of good health in fine open scenery had an exhilarating
effect on my spirits. The great want was population, the Batoka having all
taken refuge in the hills. We were now in the vicinity of those whom the
Makololo deem rebels, and felt some anxiety as to how we should be
received.
On the 4th we reached their
first village. Remaining at a distance of a quarter of a mile, we sent two
men to inform them who we were, and that our purposes were peaceful. The
head man came and spoke civilly, but, when nearly dark, the people of
another village arrived and behaved very differently. They began by trying
to spear a young man who had gone for water. Then they approached us, and
one came forward howling at the top of his voice in the most hideous
manner; his eyes were shot out, his lips covered with foam, and every
muscle of his frame quivered. He came near to me, and, having a small
battle-axe in his hand, alarmed my men lest he might do violence; but they
were afraid to disobey my previous orders, and to follow their own
inclination by knocking him on the head. I felt a little alarmed too, but
would not show fear before my own people or strangers, and kept a sharp
look-out on the little battle-axe. It seemed to me a case of ecstasy or
prophetic phrensy, voluntarily produced. I felt it would be a sorry way to
leave the world, to get my head chopped by a mad savage, though that,
perhaps, would be preferable to hydrophobia or delirium tremens. Sekwebu
took a spear in his hand, as if to pierce a bit of leather, but in reality
to plunge it into the man if he offered violence to me. After my courage
had been sufficiently tested, I beckoned with the head to the civil head
man to remove him, and he did so by drawing him aside. This man pretended
not to know what he was doing. I would fain have felt his pulse, to
ascertain whether the violent trembling were not feigned, but had not much
inclination to go near the battle-axe again. There was, however, a flow of
perspiration, and the excitement continued fully half an hour, then
gradually ceased. This paroxysm is the direct opposite of hypnotism, and
it is singular that it has not been tried in Europe as well as
clairvoyance.
This second batch of
visitors took no pains to conceal their contempt for our small party,
saying to each other, in a tone of triumph, "They are quite a Godsend!"
literally, "God has apportioned them to us." "They are lost among the
tribes!" "They have wandered in order to be destroyed, and what can they
do without shields among so many?" Some of them asked if there were no
other parties. Sekeletu had ordered my men not to take their shields, as
in the case of my first company. We were looked upon as unarmed, and an
easy prey. We prepared against a night attack by discharging and reloading
our guns, which were exactly the same in number (five) as on the former
occasion, as I allowed my late companions to retain those which I
purchased at Loanda. We were not molested, but some of the enemy tried to
lead us toward the Bashukulompo, who are considered to be the fiercest
race in this quarter. As we knew our direction to the confluence of the
Kafue and Zambesi, we declined their guidance, and the civil head man of
the evening before then came along with us. Crowds of natives hovered
round us in the forest; but he ran forward and explained, and we were not
molested.
That night we slept by a
little village under a low range of hills, which are called Chizamena. The
country here is more woody than on the high lands we had left, but the
trees are not in general large. Great numbers of them have been broken off
by elephants a foot or two from the ground: they thus seem pollarded from
that point. This animal never seriously lessens the number of trees;
indeed, I have often been struck by the very little damage he does in a
forest. His food consists more of bulbs, tubers, roots, and branches, than
any thing else. Where they have been feeding, great numbers of trees, as
thick as a man's body, are seen twisted down or broken off, in order that
they may feed on the tender shoots at the tops. They are said sometimes to
unite in wrenching down large trees. The natives in the interior believe
that the elephant never touches grass, and I never saw evidence of his
having grazed until we came near to Tete, and then he had fed on grass in
seed only; this seed contains so much farinaceous matter that the natives
collect it for their own food. This part of the country abounds in
ant-hills. In the open parts they are studded over the surface exactly as
haycocks are in harvest, or heaps of manure in spring, rather disfiguring
the landscape. In the woods they are as large as round haystacks, 40 or 50
feet in diameter at the base, and at least 20 feet high. These are more
fertile than the rest of the land, and here they are the chief
garden-ground for maize, pumpkins, and tobacco.
When we had passed the
outskirting villages, which alone consider themselves in a state of war
with the Makololo, we found the Batoka, or Batonga, as they here call
themselves, quite friendly. Great numbers of them came from all the
surrounding villages with presents of maize and masuka, and expressed
great joy at the first appearance of a white man, and harbinger of peace.
The women clothe themselves better than the Balonda, but the men go `in
puris naturalibus'. They walk about without the smallest sense of shame.
They have even lost the tradition of the "fig-leaf". I asked a fine,
large-bodied old man if he did not think it would be better to adopt a
little covering. He looked with a pitying leer, and laughed with surprise
at my thinking him at all indecent; he evidently considered himself above
such weak superstition. I told them that, on my return, I should have my
family with me, and no one must come near us in that state. "What shall we
put on? we have no clothing." It was considered a good joke when I told
them that, if they had nothing else, they must put on a bunch of grass.
The farther we advanced,
the more we found the country swarming with inhabitants. Great numbers
came to see the white man, a sight they had never beheld before. They
always brought presents of maize and masuka. Their mode of salutation is
quite singular. They throw themselves on their backs on the ground, and,
rolling from side to side, slap the outside of their thighs as expressions
of thankfulness and welcome, uttering the words "Kina bomba." This method
of salutation was to me very disagreeable, and I never could get
reconciled to it. I called out, "Stop, stop; I don't want that;" but they,
imagining I was dissatisfied, only tumbled about more furiously, and
slapped their thighs with greater vigor. The men being totally unclothed,
this performance imparted to my mind a painful sense of their extreme
degradation.
My own Batoka were much
more degraded than the Barotse, and more reckless. We had to keep a strict
watch, so as not to be involved by their thieving from the inhabitants, in
whose country and power we were. We had also to watch the use they made of
their tongues, for some within hearing of the villagers would say, "I
broke all the pots of that village," or, "I killed a man there." They were
eager to recount their soldier deeds, when they were in company with the
Makololo in former times as a conquering army. They were thus placing us
in danger by their remarks. I called them together, and spoke to them
about their folly, and gave them a pretty plain intimation that I meant to
insist upon as complete subordination as I had secured in my former
journey, as being necessary for the safety of the party. Happily, it never
was needful to resort to any other measure for their obedience, as they
all believed that I would enforce it.
In connection with the low
state of the Batoka, I was led to think on the people of Kuruman, who were
equally degraded and equally depraved. There a man scorned to shed a tear.
It would have been "tlolo", or transgression. Weeping, such as Dr. Kane
describes among the Esquimaux, is therefore quite unknown in that country.
But I have witnessed instances like this: Baba, a mighty hunter -- the
interpreter who accompanied Captain Harris, and who was ultimately killed
by a rhinoceros -- sat listening to the Gospel in the church at Kuruman,
and the gracious words of Christ, made to touch his heart, evidently by
the Holy Spirit, melted him into tears; I have seen him and others sink
down to the ground weeping. When Baba was lying mangled by the furious
beast which tore him off his horse, he shed no tear, but quietly prayed as
long as he was conscious. I had no hand in his instruction: if these
Batoka ever become like him, and they may, the influence that effects it
must be divine. A very large portion of this quarter is covered with
masuka-trees, and the ground was so strewed with the pleasant fruit that
my men kept eating it constantly as we marched along. We saw a smaller
kind of the same tree, named Molondo, the fruit of which is about the size
of marbles, having a tender skin, and slight acidity of taste mingled with
its sweetness. Another tree which is said to yield good fruit is named
Sombo, but it was not ripe at this season.
DECEMBER 6TH. We passed the
night near a series of villages. Before we came to a stand under our tree,
a man came running to us with hands and arms firmly bound with cords
behind his back, entreating me to release him. When I had dismounted, the
head man of the village advanced, and I inquired the prisoner's offense.
He stated that he had come from the Bashukulompo as a fugitive, and he had
given him a wife and garden and a supply of seed; but, on refusing a
demand for more, the prisoner had threatened to kill him, and had been
seen the night before skulking about the village, apparently with that
intention. I declined interceding unless he would confess to his
father-in-law, and promise amendment. He at first refused to promise to
abstain from violence, but afterward agreed. The father-in-law then said
that he would take him to the village and release him, but the prisoner
cried out bitterly, "He will kill me there; don't leave me, white man." I
ordered a knife, and one of the villagers released him on the spot. His
arms were cut by the cords, and he was quite lame from the blows he had
received.
These villagers supplied us
abundantly with ground-nuts, maize, and corn. All expressed great
satisfaction on hearing my message, as I directed their attention to Jesus
as their Savior, whose word is "Peace on earth, and good-will to
men." They called out, "We are tired of flight; give us rest and sleep."
They of course did not understand the full import of the message, but it
was no wonder that they eagerly seized the idea of peace. Their country
has been visited by successive scourges during the last half century, and
they are now "a nation scattered and peeled." When Sebituane came, the
cattle were innumerable, and yet these were the remnants only, left by a
chief called Pingola, who came from the northeast.
He swept across the whole
territory inhabited by his cattle-loving countrymen, devouring oxen, cows,
and calves, without retaining a single head. He seems to have been
actuated by a simple love of conquest, and is an instance of what has
occurred two or three times in every century in this country, from time
immemorial. A man or more energy or ambition than his fellows rises up and
conquers a large territory, but as soon as he dies the power he built up
is gone, and his reign, having been one of terror, is not perpetuated.
This, and the want of literature, have prevented the establishment of any
great empire in the interior of Africa. Pingola effected his conquests by
carrying numbers of smith's bellows with him. The arrow-heads were heated
before shooting into a town, and when a wound was inflicted on either man
or beast, great confusion ensued. After Pingola came Sebituane, and after
him the Matebele of Mosilikatse; and these successive inroads have reduced
the Batoka to a state in which they naturally rejoice at the prospect of
deliverance and peace.
We spent Sunday, the 10th,
at Monze's village, who is considered the chief of all the Batoka we have
seen. He lives near the hill Kisekise, whence we have a view of at least
thirty miles of open undulating country, covered with short grass, and
having but few trees. These open lawns would in any other land, as well as
this, be termed pastoral, but the people have now no cattle, and only a
few goats and fowls. They are located all over the country in small
villages, and cultivate large gardens. They are said to have adopted this
wide-spread mode of habitation in order to give alarm should any enemy
appear. In former times they lived in large towns. In the distance
(southeast) we see ranges of dark mountains along the banks of the
Zambesi, and are told of the existence there of the rapid named Kansala,
which is said to impede the navigation. The river is reported to be placid
above that as far as the territory of Sinamane, a Batoka chief, who is
said to command it after it emerges smooth again below the falls.
Kansala is the only rapid
reported in the river until we come to Kebrabasa, twenty or thirty miles
above Tete. On the north we have mountains appearing above the horizon,
which are said to be on the banks of the Kafue. The chief Monze came to us
on Sunday morning, wrapped in a large cloth, and rolled himself about in
the dust, screaming "Kina bomba," as they all do. The sight of great naked
men wallowing on the ground, though intended to do me honor, was always
very painful; it made me feel thankful that my lot had been cast in such
different circumstances from that of so many of my fellow-men. One of his
wives accompanied him; she would have been comely if her teeth had been
spared; she had a little battle-axe in her hand, and helped her husband to
scream. She was much excited, for she had never seen a white man before.
We rather liked Monze, for
he soon felt at home among us, and kept up conversation during much of the
day. One head man of a village after another arrived, and each of them
supplied us liberally with maize, ground-nuts, and corn. Monze gave us a
goat and a fowl, and appeared highly satisfied with a present of some
handkerchiefs I had got in my supplies left at the island. Being of
printed cotton, they excited great admiration; and when I put a
gaudy-colored one as a shawl about his child, he said that he would send
for all his people to make a dance about it. In telling them that my
object was to open up a path whereby they might, by getting merchandise
for ivory, avoid the guilt of selling their children, I asked Monze, with
about 150 of his men, if they would like a white man to live among them
and teach them. All expressed high satisfaction at the prospect of the
white man and his path: they would protect both him and his property. I
asked the question, because it would be of great importance to have
stations in this healthy region, whither agents oppressed by sickness
might retire, and which would serve, moreover, as part of a chain of
communication between the interior and the coast. The answer does not mean
much more than what I know, by other means, to be the case -- that a white
man OF GOOD SENSE would be welcome and safe in all these parts. By
uprightness, and laying himself out for the good of the people, he would
be known all over the country as a BENEFACTOR of the race. None desire
Christian instruction, for of it they have no idea. But the people are now
humbled by the scourgings they have received, and seem to be in a
favorable state for the reception of the Gospel. The gradual restoration
of their former prosperity in cattle, simultaneously with instruction,
would operate beneficially upon their minds. The language is a dialect of
the other negro languages in the great valley; and as many of the Batoka
living under the Makololo understand both it and the Sichuana,
missionaries could soon acquire it through that medium. Monze had never
been visited by any white man, but had seen black native traders, who, he
said, came for ivory, not for slaves. He had heard of white men passing
far to the east of him to Cazembe, referring, no doubt, to Pereira,
Lacerda, and others, who have visited that chief.
The streams in this part
are not perennial; I did not observe one suitable for the purpose of
irrigation. There is but little wood; here and there you see large single
trees, or small clumps of evergreens, but the abundance of maize and
ground-nuts we met with shows that more rain falls than in the Bechuana
country, for there they never attempt to raise maize except in damp
hollows on the banks of rivers. The pasturage is very fine for both cattle
and sheep. My own men, who know the land thoroughly, declare that it is
all garden-ground together, and that the more tender grains, which require
richer soil than the native corn, need no care here. It is seldom stony.
The men of a village came
to our encampment, and, as they followed the Bashukulompo mode of dressing
their hair, we had an opportunity of examining it for the first time. A
circle of hair at the top of the head, eight inches or more in diameter,
is woven into a cone eight or ten inches high, with an obtuse apex, bent,
in some cases, a little forward, giving it somewhat the appearance of a
helmet. Some have only a cone, four or five inches in diameter at the
base. It is said that the hair of animals is added; but the sides of the
cone are woven something like basket-work. The head man of this village,
instead of having his brought to a point, had it prolonged into a wand,
which extended a full yard from the crown of his head. The hair on the
forehead, above the ears, and behind, is all shaven off, so they appear
somewhat as if a cap of liberty were cocked upon the top of the head.
After the weaving is performed it is said to be painful, as the scalp is
drawn tightly up; but they become used to it.
Monze informed me that all
his people were formerly ornamented in this way, but he discouraged it. I
wished him to discourage the practice of knocking out the teeth too, but
he smiled, as if in that case the fashion would be too strong for him, as
it was for Sebituane. Monze came on Monday morning, and, on parting,
presented us with a piece of a buffalo which had been killed the day
before by lions. We crossed the rivulet Makoe, which runs westward into
the Kafue, and went northward in order to visit Semalembue, an influential
chief there. We slept at the village of Monze's sister, who also passes by
the same name. Both he and his sister are feminine in their appearance,
but disfigured by the foolish custom of knocking out the upper front
teeth. It is not often that jail-birds turn out well, but the first person
who appeared to welcome us at the village of Monze's sister was the
prisoner we had released in the way. He came with a handsome present of
corn and meal, and, after praising our kindness to the villagers who had
assembled around us, asked them, "What do you stand gazing at? Don't you
know that they have mouths like other people?" He then set off and brought
large bundles of grass and wood for our comfort, and a pot to cook our
food in.
DECEMBER 12TH. The morning
presented the appearance of a continuous rain from the north, the first
time we had seen it set in from that quarter in such a southern latitude.
In the Bechuana country, continuous rains are always from the northeast or
east, while in Londa and Angola they are from the north. At Pungo Andongo,
for instance, the whitewash is all removed from the north side of the
houses. It cleared up, however, about midday, and Monze's sister conducted
us a mile or two upon the road. On parting, she said that she had
forwarded orders to a distant village to send food to the point where we
should sleep. In expressing her joy at the prospect of living in peace,
she said it would be so pleasant "to sleep without dreaming of any one
pursuing them with a spear."
In our front we had ranges
of hills called Chamai, covered with trees. We crossed the rivulet
Nakachinta, flowing westward into the Kafue, and then passed over ridges
of rocks of the same mica schist which we found so abundant in Golungo
Alto; here they were surmounted by reddish porphyry and finely laminated
felspathic grit with trap. The dip, however, of these rocks is not toward
the centre of the continent, as in Angola, for ever since we passed the
masses of granite on the Kalomo, the rocks, chiefly of mica schist, dip
away from them, taking an easterly direction. A decided change of dip
occurs again when we come near the Zambesi, as will be noticed farther on.
The hills which flank that river now appeared on our right as a high dark
range, while those near the Kafue have the aspect of a low blue range,
with openings between. We crossed two never-failing rivulets also flowing
into the Kafue. The country is very fertile, but vegetation is nowhere
rank. The boiling-point of water being 204 Deg., showed that we were not
yet as low down as Linyanti; but we had left the masuka-trees behind us,
and many others with which we had become familiar. A feature common to the
forests of Angola and Benguela, namely, the presence of orchilla-weed and
lichens on the trees, with mosses on the ground, began to appear; but we
never, on any part of the eastern slope, saw the abundant crops of ferns
which are met with every where in Angola. The orchilla-weed and mosses,
too, were in but small quantities.
As we passed along, the
people continued to supply us with food in great abundance. They had by
some means or other got a knowledge that I carried medicine, and, somewhat
to the disgust of my men, who wished to keep it all to themselves, brought
their sick children for cure. Some of them I found had hooping-cough,
which is one of the few epidemics that range through this country.
In passing through the
woods I for the first time heard the bird called Mokwa reza, or
"Son-in-law of God" (Micropogon sulphuratus?), utter its cry, which is
supposed by the natives to be "pula, pula" (rain, rain). It is said to do
this only before heavy falls of rain. It may be a cuckoo, for it is said
to throw out the eggs of the white-backed Senegal crow, and lay its own
instead. This, combined with the cry for rain, causes the bird to be
regarded with favor. The crow, on the other hand, has a bad repute, and,
when rain is withheld, its nest is sought for and destroyed, in order to
dissolve the charm by which it is supposed to seal up the windows of
heaven. All the other birds now join in full chorus in the mornings, and
two of them, at least, have fine loud notes. |