Departure from the
Country of the Bakwains -- Large black Ant -- Land Tortoises -- Diseases
of wild Animals -- Habits of old Lions -- Cowardice of the Lion -- Its
Dread of a Snare -- Major Vardon's Note -- The Roar of the Lion resembles
the Cry of the Ostrich -- Seldom attacks full-grown Animals -- buffaloes
and Lions -- Mice -- Serpents -- Treading on one -- Venomous and harmless
Varieties -- Fascination -- Sekomi's Ideas of Honesty -- Ceremony of the
Sechu for Boys -- The Boyale for young Women -- Bamangwato Hills -- The
Unicorn's Pass -- The Country beyond -- Grain -- Scarcity of Water --
Honorable Conduct of English Gentlemen -- Gordon Cumming's hunting
Adventures -- A Word of Advice for young Sportsmen -- Bushwomen drawing
Water -- Ostrich -- Silly Habit -- Paces -- Eggs -- Food.
Having remained five days
with the wretched Bakwains, seeing the effects of war, of which only a
very inadequate idea can ever be formed by those who have not been
eye-witnesses of its miseries, we prepared to depart on the 15th of
January, 1853. Several dogs, in better condition by far than any of the
people, had taken up their residence at the water. No one would own them;
there they had remained, and, coming on the trail of the people, long
after their departure from the scene of conflict, it was plain they had
"Held o'er the dead their
carnival."
Hence the disgust with
which they were viewed.
On our way from Khopong, along the ancient river-bed which forms the
pathway to Boatlanama, I found a species of cactus, being the third I have
seen in the country, namely, one in the colony with a bright red flower,
one at Lake Ngami, the flower of which was liver-colored, and the present
one, flower unknown. That the plant is uncommon may be inferred from the
fact that the Bakwains find so much difficulty in recognizing the plant
again after having once seen it, that they believe it has the power of
changing its locality.
On the 21st of January we reached the wells of Boatlanama, and found them
for the first time empty. Lopepe, which I had formerly seen a stream
running from a large reedy pool, was also dry. The hot salt spring of
Serinane, east of Lopepe, being undrinkable, we pushed on to Mashue for
its delicious waters. In traveling through this country, the olfactory
nerves are frequently excited by a strong disagreeable odor. This is
caused by a large jet-black ant named "Leshonya". It is nearly an inch in
length, and emits a pungent smell when alarmed, in the same manner as the
skunk. The scent must be as volatile as ether, for, on irritating the
insect with a stick six feet long, the odor is instantly perceptible.
Occasionally we lighted upon land tortoises, which, with their unlaid
eggs, make a very agreeable dish. We saw many of their trails leading to
the salt fountain; they must have come great distances for this
health-giving article. In lieu thereof they often devour wood-ashes.
It is wonderful how this reptile holds its place in the country. When
seen, it never escapes. The young are taken for the sake of their shells;
these are made into boxes, which, filled with sweet-smelling roots, the
women hang around their persons. When older it is used as food, and the
shell converted into a rude basin to hold food or water. It owes its
continuance neither to speed nor cunning. Its color, yellow and dark
brown, is well adapted, by its similarity to the surrounding grass and
brushwood, to render it indistinguishable; and, though it makes an awkward
attempt to run on the approach of man, its trust is in its bony covering,
from which even the teeth of a hyaena glance off foiled. When this
long-lived creature is about =to deposit her eggs, she lets herself into
the ground by throwing the earth up round her shell, until only the top is
visible; then covering up the eggs, she leaves them until the rains begin
to fall and the fresh herbage appears; the young ones then come out, their
shells still quite soft, and, unattended by their dam, begin the world for
themselves. Their food is tender grass and a plant named thotona, and they
frequently resort to heaps of ashes and places containing efflorescence of
the nitrates for the salts these contain.
Inquiries among the Bushmen and Bakalahari, who are intimately acquainted
with the habits of the game, lead to the belief that many diseases prevail
among wild animals. I have seen the kokong or gnu, kama or hartebeest, the
tsessebe, kukama, and the giraffe, so mangy as to be uneatable even by the
natives. Reference has already been made to the peripneumonia which cuts
off horses, tolos or koodoos. Great numbers also of zebras are found dead
with masses of foam at the nostrils, exactly as occurs in the common
"horse-sickness". The production of the malignant carbuncle called kuatsi,
or selonda, by the flesh when eaten, is another proof of the disease of
the tame and wild being identical. I once found a buffalo blind from
ophthalmia standing by the fountain Otse; when he attempted to run he
lifted up his feet in the manner peculiar to blind animals.
The rhinoceros has often worms on the conjunction of his eyes; but these
are not the cause of the dimness of vision which will make him charge past
a man who has wounded him, if he stands perfectly still, in the belief
that his enemy is a tree. It probably arises from the horn being in the
line of vision, for the variety named kuabaoba, which has a straight horn
directed downward away from that line,
possesses acute eyesight, and is much more wary.
All the wild animals are subject to intestinal worms besides. I have
observed bunches of a tape-like thread and short worms of enlarged sizes
in the rhinoceros. The zebra and elephants are seldom without them, and a
thread-worm may often be seen under the peritoneum of these animals. Short
red larvae, which convey a stinging sensation to the hand, are seen
clustering round the orifice of the windpipe (trachea) of this animal at
the back of the throat; others are seen in the frontal sinus of antelopes;
and curious flat, leech-like worms, with black eyes, are found in the
stomachs of leches. The zebra, giraffe, eland, and kukama have been seen
mere skeletons from decay of their teeth as well as from disease.
The carnivora, too, become diseased and mangy; lions become lean and
perish miserably by reason of the decay of the teeth. When a lion becomes
too old to catch game, he frequently takes to killing goats in the
villages; a woman or child happening to go out at night falls a prey too;
and as this is his only source of subsistence now, he continues it. From
this circumstance has arisen the idea that the lion, when he has once
tasted human flesh, loves it better than any other. A man-eater is
invariably an old lion; and when he overcomes his fear of man so far as to
come to villages for goats, the people remark,
"His teeth are worn, he will soon kill men." They at once acknowledge the
necessity of instant action, and turn out to kill him.
When living far away from population, or when, as is the case in some
parts, he entertains a wholesome dread of the Bushmen and Bakalahari, as
soon as either disease or old age overtakes him, he begins to catch mice
and other small rodents, and even to eat grass; the natives, observing
undigested vegetable matter in his droppings, =follow up his trail in the
certainty of finding him scarcely able to move under some tree, and
dispatch him without difficulty. The grass may have been eaten as
medicine, as is observed in dogs. That the fear of man often remains
excessively strong in the carnivora is proved from well-authenticated
cases in which the lioness, in the vicinity of towns where the large game
had been unexpectedly driven away by fire-arms, has been known to assuage
the paroxysms of hunger by devouring her own young. It must be added,
that, though the effluvium which is left by the footsteps of man is in
general sufficient to induce lions to avoid a village, there are
exceptions; so many came about our half-deserted houses at Chonuane while
we were in the act of removing to Kolobeng, that the natives who remained
with Mrs. Livingstone were terrified to stir out of doors in the evenings.
Bitches, also, have been known to be guilty of the horridly unnatural act
of eating their own young, probably from the great desire for animal food,
=which is experienced by the inhabitants as well.
When a lion is met in the daytime, a circumstance by no means unfrequent
to travelers in these parts, if preconceived notions do not lead them to
expect something very "noble" or "majestic", they will see merely an
animal somewhat larger than the biggest dog they ever saw, and partaking
very strongly of the canine features; the face is not much like the usual
drawings of a lion, the nose being prolonged like a dog's; not exactly
such as our painters make it -- though they might learn better at the
Zoological Gardens -- their ideas of majesty being usually shown by making
their lions' faces like old women in nightcaps.
When encountered in the daytime, the lion stands a second or two, gazing,
then turns slowly round, and walks as slowly away for a dozen paces,
looking over his shoulder; then begins to trot, and, when he thinks
himself out of sight, bounds off like a greyhound. By day there is not, as
a rule, the smallest danger of lions which are not molested attacking man,
nor even on a clear moonlight night, except when they possess the breeding
storgh* (natural affection); this makes them brave almost any danger; and
if a man happens to cross to the windward of them, both lion and lioness
will rush at him, in the manner of a bitch with whelps. This does not
often happen, as I only became aware of two or three instances of it. In
one case a man, passing where the wind blew from him to the animals, was
bitten before he could climb a tree; and occasionally a man on horseback
has been caught by the leg under the same circumstances. So general,
however, is the sense of security on moonlight nights, that we seldom tied
up our oxen, but let them lie loose by the wagons; while on a dark, rainy
night, if a lion is in the neighborhood, he is almost sure to venture to
kill an ox. His approach is always stealthy, except when wounded; and any
appearance of a trap is enough to cause him to refrain from making the
last spring. This seems characteristic of the feline species; when a goat
is picketed in India for the purpose of enabling the huntsmen to shoot a
tiger by night, if on a plain, he would whip off the animal so quickly by
a stroke of the paw that no one could take aim; to obviate this, a small
pit is dug, and the goat is picketed to a stake in the bottom; a small
stone is tied in the ear of the goat, which makes him cry the whole night.
When the tiger sees the appearance of a trap, he walks round and round the
pit, and allows the hunter, who is lying in wait, to have a fair shot.
sigma-tau-omicron-rho-gamma-eta.
When a lion is very hungry, and lying in wait, the sight of an animal may
make him commence stalking it. In one case a man, while stealthily
crawling towards a rhinoceros, happened to glance behind him, and found to
his horror a lion STALKING HIM; he only escaped by springing up a tree
like a cat. At Lopepe a lioness sprang on the after quarter of Mr.
Oswell's horse, and when we came up to him we found the marks of the claws
on the horse, and a scratch on Mr. O.'s hand. The horse, on feeling the
lion on him, sprang away, and the rider, caught by a wait-a-bit thorn, was
brought to the ground and rendered insensible.
His dogs saved him. Another English gentleman (Captain Codrington) was
surprised in the same way, though not hunting the lion at the time, =but
turning round he shot him dead in the neck. By accident a horse belonging
to Codrington ran away, but was stopped by the bridle catching a stump;
there he remained a prisoner two days, and when found the whole space
around was marked by the footprints of lions. They had evidently been
afraid to attack the haltered horse from fear that it was a trap. Two
lions came up by night to within three yards of oxen tied to a wagon, and
a sheep tied to a tree, and stood roaring, but afraid to make a spring. On
another occasion one of our party was lying sound asleep and unconscious
of danger between two natives behind a bush at Mashue; the fire was nearly
out at their feet in consequence of all being completely tired out by the
fatigues of the previous day; a lion came up to within three yards of the
fire, and there commenced roaring instead of making a spring: the fact of
their riding-ox being tied to the bush was the only reason the lion had
for not following his instinct, and making a meal of flesh. He then stood
on a knoll three hundred yards distant, and roared all night, and
continued his growling as the party moved off by daylight next morning.
Nothing that I ever learned of the lion would lead me to attribute to it
either the ferocious or noble character ascribed to it elsewhere. It
possesses none of the nobility of the Newfoundland or St. Bernard dogs.
With respect to its great strength there can be no doubt. The immense
masses of muscle around its jaws, shoulders, and forearms proclaim
tremendous force. They would seem, however, to be inferior in power to
those of the Indian tiger. Most of those feats of strength that I have
seen performed by lions, such as the taking away of an ox, were not
carrying, but dragging or trailing the carcass along the ground: they have
sprung on some occasions on to the hind-quarters of a horse, but no one
has ever seen them on the withers of a giraffe. They do not mount on the
hind-quarters of an eland even, but try to tear him down with their claws.
Messrs. Oswell and Vardon once saw three lions endeavoring to drag down a
buffalo, and they were unable to do so for a time, though he was then
mortally wounded by a two-ounce ball.
This singular encounter, in the words of an eye-witness, happened as
follows:
"My South African Journal is now before me, and I have got hold of the
account of the lion and buffalo affair; here it is: `15th September, 1846.
Oswell and I were riding this afternoon along the banks of the Limpopo,
when a waterbuck started in front of us. I dismounted, and was following
it through the jungle, when three buffaloes got up, and, after going a
little distance, stood still, and the nearest bull turned round and looked
at me. A ball from the two-ouncer crashed into his shoulder, and they all
three made off. Oswell and I followed as soon as I had reloaded, and when
we were in sight of the buffalo, and gaining on him at every stride, three
lions leaped on the unfortunate brute; he bellowed most lustily as he kept
up a kind of running fight, but he was, of course, soon overpowered and
pulled down. We had a fine view of the struggle, and saw the lions on
their hind legs tearing away with teeth and claws in most ferocious style.
We crept up within thirty yards, and, kneeling down, blazed away at the
lions. My rifle was a single barrel, and I had no spare gun. One lion fell
dead almost ON the buffalo; he had merely time to turn toward us, seize a
bush with his teeth, and drop dead with the stick in his jaws. The second
made off immediately; and the third raised his head, coolly looked round
for a moment, then went on tearing and biting at the carcass as hard as
ever. We retired a short distance to load, then again advanced and fired.
The lion made off, but a ball that he received OUGHT to have stopped him,
as it went clean through his shoulder-blade. He was followed up and
killed, after having charged several times. Both lions were males. It is
not often that one BAGS a brace of lions and a bull buffalo in about ten
minutes. It was an exciting adventure, and I shall never forget it.'
"Such, my dear Livingstone, is the plain unvarnished account. The buffalo
had, of course, gone close to where the lions were lying down for the day;
and they, seeing him lame and bleeding, thought the opportunity too good a
one to be lost.
Ever yours,
Frank Vardon."
In general the lion seizes the animal he is attacking by the flank near
the hind leg, or by the throat below the jaw. It is questionable whether
he ever attempts to seize an animal by the withers. The flank is the most
common point of attack, and that is the part he begins to feast on first.
The natives and lions are very similar in their tastes in the selection of
tit-bits: an eland may be seen disemboweled by a lion so completely that
he scarcely seems cut up at all. The bowels and fatty parts form a full
meal for even the largest lion.
The jackal comes sniffing about, and sometimes suffers for his temerity by
a stroke from the lion's paw laying him dead. When gorged, the lion falls
fast asleep, and is then easily dispatched. Hunting a lion with dogs
involves very little danger as compared with hunting the Indian tiger,
because the dogs bring him out of cover and make him stand at bay, giving
the hunter plenty of time for a good deliberate shot.
Where game is abundant, there you may expect lions in proportionately
large numbers. They are never seen in herds, but six or eight, probably
one family, occasionally hunt together. One is in much more danger of
being run over when walking in the streets of London, than he is of being
devoured by lions in Africa, unless engaged in hunting the animal. Indeed,
nothing that I have seen or heard about lions would constitute a barrier
in the way of men of ordinary courage and enterprise.
The same feeling which has induced the modern painter to caricature the
lion, has led the sentimentalist to consider the lion's roar the most
terrific of all earthly sounds. We hear of the "majestic roar of the king
of beasts." It is, indeed, well calculated to inspire fear if you hear it
in combination with the tremendously loud thunder of that country, on a
night so pitchy dark that every flash of the intensely vivid lightning
leaves you with the impression of stone-blindness, while the rain pours
down so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you without the protection
of even a tree, or the chance of your gun going off. But when you are in a
comfortable house or wagon, the case is very different, and you hear the
roar of the lion without any awe or alarm.
The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud, yet he never was feared by man.
To talk of the majestic roar of the lion is mere majestic twaddle. On my
mentioning this fact some years ago, the assertion was doubted, so I have
been careful ever since to inquire the opinions of Europeans, who have
heard both, if they could detect any difference between the roar of a lion
and that of an ostrich; the invariable answer was, that they could not
when the animal was at any distance. The natives assert that they can
detect a variation between the commencement of the noise of each. There
is, it must be admitted, considerable difference between the singing noise
of a lion when full, and his deep, gruff growl when hungry. In general the
lion's voice seems to come deeper from the chest than that of the ostrich,
but to this day I can distinguish between them with certainty only by
knowing that the ostrich roars by day and the lion by night.
The African lion is of a tawny color, like that of some mastiffs. The mane
in the male is large, and gives the idea of great power. In some lions the
ends of the hair of the mane are black; these go by the name of
black-maned lions, though as a whole all look of the yellow tawny color.
At the time of the discovery of the lake, Messrs. Oswell and Wilson shot
two specimens of another variety. One was an old lion, whose teeth were
mere stumps, and his claws worn quite blunt; the other was full grown, in
the prime of life, with white, perfect teeth; both were entirely destitute
of mane. The lions in the country near the lake give tongue less than
those further south. We scarcely ever heard them roar at all. The lion has
other checks on inordinate increase besides man. He seldom attacks
full-grown animals; but frequently, when a buffalo calf is caught by him,
the cow rushes to the rescue, and a toss from her often kills him. One we
found was killed thus; and on the Leeambye another, which died near
Sesheke, had all the appearance of having received his death-blow from a
buffalo. It is questionable if a single lion ever attacks a full-grown
buffalo. The amount of roaring heard at night, on occasions when a buffalo
is killed, seems to indicate there are always more than one lion engaged
in the onslaught.
On the plain, south of Sebituane's ford, a herd of buffaloes kept a number
of lions from their young by the males turning their heads to the enemy.
The young and the cows were in the rear. One toss from a bull would kill
the strongest lion that ever breathed. I have been informed that in one
part of India even the tame buffaloes feel their superiority to some wild
animals, for they have been seen to chase a tiger up the hills, bellowing
as if they enjoyed the sport. Lions never go near any elephants except the
calves, which, when young, are sometimes torn by them; every living thing
retires before the lordly elephant, yet a full-grown one would be an
easier prey than the rhinoceros; the lion rushes off at the mere sight of
this latter beast.
In the country adjacent to Mashue great numbers of different kinds of mice
exist. The ground is often so undermined with their burrows that the foot
sinks in at every step. Little haycocks, about two feet high, and rather
more than that in breadth, are made by one variety of these little
creatures. The same thing is done in regions annually covered with snow
for obvious purposes, but it is difficult here to divine the reason of the
haymaking in the climate of Africa.
Wherever mice abound, serpents may be expected, for the one preys on the
other. A cat in a house is therefore a good preventive against the
entrance of these noxious reptiles. Occasionally, however, notwithstanding
every precaution, they do find their way in, but even the most venomous
sorts bite only when put in bodily fear themselves, or when trodden upon,
or when the sexes come together. I once found a coil of serpents' skins,
made by a number of them twisting together in the manner described by the
Druids of old. When in the country, one feels nothing of that alarm and
loathing which we may experience when sitting in a comfortable English
room reading about them; yet they are nasty things, and we seem to have an
instinctive feeling against them. In making the door for our Mabotsa
house, I happened to leave a small hole at the corner below. Early one
morning a man came to call for some article I had promised. I at once went
to the door, and, it being dark, trod on a serpent. The moment I felt the
cold scaly skin twine round a part of my leg, my latent instinct was
roused, and I jumped up higher than I ever did before or hope to do again,
shaking the reptile off in the leap. I probably trod on it near the head,
and so prevented it biting me, but did not stop to examine.
Some of the serpents are particularly venomous. One was killed at Kolobeng
of a dark brown, nearly black color, 8 feet 3 inches long. This species
(picakholu) is so copiously supplied with poison that, when a number of
dogs attack it, the first bitten dies almost instantaneously, the second
in about five minutes, the third in an hour or so, while the fourth may
live several hours. In a cattle-pen it produces great mischief in the same
way. The one we killed at Kolobeng continued to distill clear poison from
the fangs for hours after its head was cut off. This was probably that
which passes by the name of the "spitting serpent", which is believed to
be able to eject its poison into the eyes when the wind favors its
forcible expiration. They all require water, and come long distances to
the Zouga, and other rivers and pools, in search of it.
We have another dangerous serpent, the puff adder, and several vipers.
One, named by the inhabitants "Noga-put-sane", or serpent of a kid, utters
a cry by night exactly like the bleating of that animal. I heard one at a
spot where no kid could possibly have been. It is supposed by the natives
to lure travelers to itself by this bleating. Several varieties, when
alarmed, emit a peculiar odor, by which the people become aware of their
presence in a house. We have also the cobra (`Naia haje', Smith) of
several colors or varieties. When annoyed, they raise their heads up about
a foot from the ground,
and flatten the neck in a threatening manner, darting out the tongue and
retracting it with great velocity, while their fixed glassy eyes glare as
if in anger. There are also various species of the genus `Dendrophis', as
the `Bucephalus viridis', or green tree-climber. They climb trees in
search of birds and eggs, and are soon discovered by all the birds in the
neighborhood collecting and sounding an alarm. Their fangs are formed not
so much for injecting poison on external objects as for keeping in any
animal or bird of which they have got hold.
In the case of the `Dasypeltis inornatus' (Smith), the teeth are small,
and favorable for the passage of thin-shelled eggs without breaking. The
egg is taken in unbroken till it is within the gullet, or about two inches
behind the head. The gular teeth placed there break the shell without
spilling the contents, as would be the case if the front teeth were large.
The shell is then ejected. Others appear to be harmless, and even edible.
Of the latter sort is the large python, metse pallah, or tari. The largest
specimens of this are about 15 or 20 feet in length. They are perfectly
harmless, and live on small animals, chiefly the rodentia; occasionally
the steinbuck and pallah fall victims, and are sucked into its
comparatively small mouth in boa-constrictor fashion. One we shot was 11
feet 10 inches long, and as thick as a man's leg. When shot through the
spine, it was capable of lifting itself up about five feet high, and
opened its mouth in a threatening manner, but the poor thing was more
inclined to crawl away. The flesh is much relished by the Bakalahari and
Bushmen. They carry away each his portion, like logs of wood, over their
shoulders.
"As this snake, `Bucephalus Capensis', in our opinion, is not provided
with a poisonous fluid to instill into wounds which these fangs may
inflict, they must consequently be intended for a purpose different to
those which exist in poisonous reptiles. Their use seems to be to offer
obstacles to the retrogression of animals, such as birds, etc., while they
are only partially within the mouth; and from the circumstance of these
fangs being directed backward, and not admitting of being raised so as to
form an angle with the edge of the jaw, they are well fitted to act as
powerful holders when once they penetrate the skin and soft parts of the
prey which their possessors may be in the act of swallowing. Without such
fangs escapes would be common; with such they are rare. "The natives of
South Africa regard the Bucephalus Capensis' as poisonous; but in their
opinion we can not concur, as we have not been able to discover the
existence of any glands manifestly organized for the secretion of poison.
The fangs are inclosed in a soft, pulpy sheath, the inner surface of which
is commonly coated with a thin glairy secretion. This secretion possibly
may have something acrid and irritating in its qualities, which may, when
it enters a wound, cause pain and even swelling, but nothing of greater
importance. "The `Bucephalus Capensis' is generally found on trees, to
which it resorts for the purpose of catching birds, upon which it delights
to feed. The presence of a specimen in a tree is generally soon discovered
by the birds of the neighborhood, who collect around it and fly to and
fro, uttering the most piercing cries, until some one, more terror-struck
than the rest, actually scans its lips, and, almost without resistance,
becomes a meal for its enemy. During such a proceeding the snake is
generally observed with its head raised about ten or twelve inches above
the branch round which its body and tail are entwined, with its mouth open
and its neck inflated, as if anxiously endeavoring to increase the terror
which it would almost appear it was aware would sooner or later bring
within its grasp some one of the feathered group. "Whatever may be said in
ridicule of fascination, it is nevertheless true that birds, and even
quadrupeds, are, under certain circumstances, unable to retire from the
presence of certain of their enemies; and, what is even more
extraordinary, unable to resist the propensity to advance from a situation
of actual safety into one of the most imminent danger. This I have often
seen exemplified in the case of birds and snakes; and I have heard of
instances equally curious, in which antelopes and other quadrupeds have
been so bewildered by the sudden appearance of crocodiles, and by the
grimaces and contortions they practiced, as to be unable to fly or even
move from the spot toward which they were approaching to seize them." --
Dr. Andrew Smith's "Reptilia". In addition to these interesting statements
of the most able naturalist from whom I have taken this note, it may be
added that fire exercises a fascinating effect on some kinds of toads.
They may be seen rushing into it in the evenings without ever starting
back on feeling pain. Contact with the hot embers rather increases the
energy with which they strive to gain the hottest parts, and they never
cease their struggles for the centre even when their juices are
coagulating and their limbs stiffening in the roasting heat. Various
insects, also, are thus fascinated; but the scorpions may be seen coming
away from the fire in fierce disgust, and they are so irritated as to
inflict at that time their most painful stings.
Some of the Bayeiye we met at Sebituane's Ford pretended to be unaffected
by the bite of serpents, and showed the feat of lacerating their arms with
the teeth of such as are unfurnished with the poison-fangs. They also
swallow the poison, by way of gaining notoriety; but Dr. Andrew Smith put
the sincerity of such persons to the test by offering them the fangs of a
really poisonous variety, and found they shrank from the experiment.
When we reached the Bamangwato, the chief, Sekomi, was particularly
friendly, collected all his people to the religious services we held, and
explained his reasons for compelling some Englishmen to pay him a horse.
"They would not sell him any powder, though they had plenty; so he
compelled them to give it and the horse for nothing. He would not deny the
extortion to me; that would be `boherehere' (swindling)."
He thus thought extortion better than swindling. I could not detect any
difference in the morality of the two transactions, but Sekomi's ideas of
honesty are the lowest I have met with in any Bechuana chief, and this
instance is mentioned as the only approach to demanding payment for leave
to pass that I have met with in the south. In all other cases the
difficulty has been to get a chief to give us men to show the way, and the
payment has only been for guides. Englishmen have always very properly
avoided giving that idea to the native mind which we shall hereafter find
prove troublesome, that payment ought to be made for passage through a
country. All the Bechuana and Caffre tribes south of the Zambesi practice
circumcision (`boguera'), but the rites observed are carefully concealed.
The initiated alone can approach, but in this town I was once a spectator
of the second part of the ceremony of the circumcision, called "sechu".
Just at the dawn of day, a row of boys of nearly fourteen years of age
stood naked in the kotla, each having a pair of sandals as a shield on his
hands. Facing them stood the men of the town in a similar state of nudity,
all armed with long thin wands, of a tough, strong, supple bush called
moretloa (`Grewia flava'), and engaged in a dance named "koha", in which
questions are put to the boys, as "Will you guard the chief well?" "Will
you herd the cattle well?" and, while the latter give an affirmative
response, the men rush forward to them, and each aims a full-weight blow
at the back of one of the boys. Shielding himself with the sandals above
his head, he causes the supple wand to descend and bend into his back, and
every stroke inflicted thus makes the blood squirt out of a wound a foot
or eighteen inches long. At the end of the dance, the boys' backs are
seamed with wounds and weals, the scars of which remain through life. This
is intended to harden the young soldiers, and prepare them for the rank of
men. After this ceremony, and after killing a rhinoceros, they may marry a
wife.
In the "koha" the same respect is shown to age as in many other of their
customs. A younger man, rushing from the ranks to exercise his wand on the
backs of the youths, may be himself the object of chastisement by the
older, and, on the occasion referred to, Sekomi received a severe cut on
the leg from one of his gray-haired people. On my joking with some of the
young men on their want of courage, notwithstanding all the beatings of
which they bore marks, and hinting that our soldiers were brave without
suffering so much, one rose up and said, "Ask him if, when he and I were
compelled by a lion to stop and make a fire, I did not lie down and sleep
as well as himself." In other parts a challenge to try a race would have
been given, and you may frequently see grown men adopting that means of
testing superiority, like so many children.
The sechu is practiced by three tribes only. Boguera is observed by all
the Bechuanas and Caffres, but not by the negro tribes beyond 20 Deg.
south. The "boguera" is a civil rather than a religious rite. All the boys
of an age between ten and fourteen or fifteen are selected to be the
companions for life of one of the sons of the chief. They are taken out to
some retired spot in the forest, and huts are erected for their
accommodation; the old men go out and teach them to dance, initiating
them, at the same time, into all the mysteries of African politics and
government. Each one is expected to compose an oration in praise of
himself, called a "leina" or name, and to be able to repeat it with
sufficient fluency. A good deal of beating is required to bring them up to
the required excellency in different matters, so that, when they return
from the close seclusion in which they are kept, they have generally a
number of scars to show on their backs. These bands or regiments, named
mepato in the plural and mopato in the singular, receive particular
appellations; as, the Matsatsi -- the suns; the Mabusa -- the rulers;
equivalent to our Coldstreams or Enniskillens; and, though living in
different parts of the town, they turn out at the call, and act under the
chief's son as their commander. They recognize a sort of equality and
partial communism ever afterward, and address each other by the title of
molekane or comrade. In cases of offence against their rules, as eating
alone when any of their comrades are within call, or in cases of cowardice
or dereliction of duty, they may strike one another, or any member of a
younger mopato, but never any one of an older band; and when three or four
companies have been made, the oldest no longer takes the field in time of
war, but remains as a guard over the women and children. When a fugitive
comes to a tribe, he is directed to the mopato analogous to that to which
in his own tribe he belongs, and does duty as a member. No one of the
natives knows how old he is. If asked his age, he answers by putting
another question, "Does a man remember when he was born?" Age is reckoned
by the number of mepato they have seen pass through the formulae of
admission.
When they see four or five mepato younger than themselves, they are no
longer obliged to bear arms. The oldest individual I ever met boasted he
had seen eleven sets of boys submit to the boguera. Supposing him to have
been fifteen when he saw his own, and fresh bands were added every six or
seven years, he must have been about forty when he saw the fifth, and may
have attained seventy-five or eighty years, which is no great age; but it
seemed so to them, for he had now doubled the age for superannuation among
them. It is an ingenious plan for attaching the members of the tribe to
the chief's family, and for imparting a discipline which renders the tribe
easy of command. On their return to the town from attendance on the
ceremonies of initiation, a prize is given to the lad who can run fastest,
the article being placed where all may see the winner run up to snatch it.
They are then considered men (banona, viri), and can sit among the elders
in the kotla. Formerly they were only boys (basimane, pueri). The first
missionaries set their faces against the boguera, on account of its
connection with heathenism, and the fact that the youths learned much
evil, and became disobedient to their parents. From the general success of
these men, it is perhaps better that younger missionaries should tread in
their footsteps; for so much evil may result from breaking down the
authority on which, to those who can not read, the whole system of our
influence appears to rest, that innovators ought to be made to propose
their new measures as the Locrians did new laws -- with ropes around their
necks. Probably the "boguera" was only a sanitary and political measure;
and there being no continuous chain of tribes practicing the rite between
the Arabs and the Bechuanas, or Caffres, and as it is not a religious
ceremony, it can scarcely be traced, as is often done, to a Mohammedan
source.
A somewhat analogous ceremony (boyale) takes place for young women, and
the protegees appear abroad drilled under the surveillance of an old lady
to the carrying of water. They are clad during the whole time in a dress
composed of ropes made of alternate pumpkin-seeds and bits of reed strung
together, and wound round the body in a figure-of-eight fashion. They are
inured in this way to bear fatigue, and carry large pots of water under
the guidance of the stern old hag. They have often scars from bits of
burning charcoal having been applied to the forearm, which must have been
done to test their power of bearing pain.
The Bamangwato hills are part of the range called Bakaa. The Bakaa tribe,
however, removed to Kolobeng, and is now joined to that of Sechele. The
range stands about 700 or 800 feet above the plains,
and is composed of great masses of black basalt. It is probably part of
the latest series of volcanic rocks in South Africa.
At the eastern end these hills have curious fungoid or cup-shaped hollows,
of a size which suggests the idea of craters. Within these are masses of
the rock crystallized in the columnar form of this formation. The tops of
the columns are quite distinct, of the hexagonal form, like the bottom of
the cells of a honeycomb, but they are not parted from each other as in
the Cave of Fingal. In many parts the lava-streams may be recognized, for
there the rock is rent and split in every direction, but no soil is yet
found in the interstices. When we were sitting in the evening, after a hot
day, it was quite common to hear these masses of basalt split and fall
among each other with the peculiar ringing sound which makes people
believe that this rock contains much iron. Several large masses, in
splitting thus by the cold acting suddenly on parts expanded by the heat
of the day, have slipped down the sides of the hills, and, impinging
against each other, have formed cavities in which the Bakaa took refuge
against their enemies.
The numerous chinks and crannies left by these huge fragments made it
quite impossible for their enemies to smoke them out, as was done by the
Boers to the people of Mankopane. This mass of basalt, about six miles
long, has tilted up the rocks on both the east and west; these upheaved
rocks are the ancient silurian schists which formed the bottom of the
great primaeval valley, and, like all the recent volcanic rocks of this
country, have a hot fountain in their vicinity, namely, that of Serinane.
In passing through these hills on our way north we enter a pass named
Manakalongwe, or Unicorn's Pass. The unicorn here is a large edible
caterpillar, with an erect, horn-like tail. The pass was also called
Porapora (or gurgling of water), from a stream having run through it. The
scene must have been very different in former times from what it is now.
This is part of the River Mahalapi, which so-called river scarcely merits
the name, any more than the meadows of Edinburgh deserve the title of
North Loch.
These hills are the last we shall see for months. The country beyond
consisted of large patches of trap-covered tufa, having little soil or
vegetation except tufts of grass and wait-a-bit thorns, in the midst of
extensive sandy, grass-covered plains. These yellow-colored, grassy
plains, with moretloa and mahatla bushes, form quite a characteristic
feature of the country. The yellow or dun-color prevails during a great
part of the year. The Bakwain hills are an exception to the usual flat
surface, for they are covered with green trees to their tops, and the
valleys are often of the most lovely green. The trees are larger too, and
even the plains of the Bakwain country contain trees instead of bushes. If
you look north from the hills we are now leaving, the country partakes of
this latter character. It appears as if it were a flat covered with a
forest of ordinary-sized trees from 20 to 30 feet high, but when you
travel over it they are not so closely planted but that a wagon with care
may be guided among them. The grass grows in tufts of the size of one's
hat, with bare soft sand between. Nowhere here have we an approach to
English lawns, or the pleasing appearance of English greensward.
In no part of this country could European grain be cultivated without
irrigation. The natives all cultivate the dourrha or holcus sorghum,
maize, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, and different kinds of beans; and they
are entirely dependent for the growth of these on rains. Their instrument
of culture is the hoe, and the chief labor falls on the female portion of
the community. In this respect the Bechuanas closely resemble the Caffres.
The men engage in hunting, milk the cows, and have the entire control of
the cattle; they prepare the skins, make the clothing, and in many
respects may be considered a nation of tailors.
When at Sekomi's we generally have heard his praises sounded by a man who
rises at break of day, and utters at the top of his voice the oration
which that ruler is said to have composed at his boguera. This repetition
of his "leina", or oration, is so pleasing to a chief, that he generally
sends a handsome present to the man who does it.
JANUARY 28TH. Passing on to Letloche, about twenty miles beyond the
Bamangwato, we found a fine supply of water. This is a point of so much
interest in that country that the first question we ask of passers by is,
"Have you had water?" the first inquiry a native puts to a
fellow-countryman is, "Where is the rain?" and, though they are by no
means an untruthful nation, the answer generally is, "I don't know --
there is none -- we are killed with hunger and by the sun." If news is
asked for, they commence with, "There is no news: I heard some lies only,"
and then tell all they know. This spot was Mr. Gordon Cumming's furthest
station north.
Our house at Kolobeng having been quite in the hunting-country, rhinoceros
and buffaloes several times rushed past, and I was able to shoot the
latter twice from our own door. We were favored by visits from this famous
hunter during each of the five years of his warfare with wild animals.
Many English gentlemen following the same pursuits paid their guides and
assistants so punctually that in making arrangements for them we had to be
careful that four did not go where two only were wanted: they knew so well
that an Englishman would pay that they depended implicitly on his word of
honor, and not only would they go and hunt for five or six months in the
north, enduring all the hardships of that trying mode of life, with little
else but meat of game to subsist on, but they willingly went seven hundred
or eight hundred miles to Graham's Town, receiving for wages only a musket
worth fifteen shillings.
No one ever deceived them except one man; and as I believed that he was
afflicted with a slight degree of the insanity of greediness, I upheld the
honor of the English name by paying his debts. As the guides of Mr.
Cumming were furnished through my influence, and usually got some strict
charges as to their behavior before parting, looking upon me in the light
of a father, they always came to give me an account of their service, and
told most of those hunting adventures which have since been given to the
world, before we had =the pleasure of hearing our friend relate them
himself by our own fireside. I had thus a tolerably good opportunity of
testing their accuracy, and I have no hesitation in saying that for those
who love that sort of thing Mr. Cumming's book conveys a truthful idea of
South African hunting.
Some things in it require explanation, but the numbers of animals said to
have been met with and killed are by no means improbable, considering the
amount of large game then in the country. Two other gentlemen hunting in
the same region destroyed in one season no fewer than seventy-eight
rhinoceroses alone. Sportsmen, however, =would not now find an equal
number, for as guns are introduced among the tribes all these fine animals
melt away like snow in spring. In the more remote districts, where
fire-arms have not yet been introduced, with the single exception of the
rhinoceros, the game is to be found in numbers much greater than Mr.
Cumming ever saw. The tsetse is, however, an insuperable barrier to
hunting with horses there, and Europeans can do nothing on foot. The step
of the elephant when charging the hunter, though apparently not quick, is
so long that the pace equals the speed of a good horse at a canter. A
young sportsman, no matter how great among pheasants, foxes, and hounds,
would do well to pause before resolving to brave fever for the excitement
of risking such a terrific charge; the scream or trumpeting of this
enormous brute when infuriated is more like what the shriek of a French
steam-whistle would be to a man standing on the dangerous part of a
rail-road than any other earthly sound: a horse unused to it will
sometimes stand shivering instead of taking his rider out of danger. It
has happened often that the poor animal's legs do their duty so badly that
he falls and causes his rider to be trodden into a mummy; or, losing his
presence of mind, the rider may allow the horse to dash under a tree and
crack his cranium against a branch. As one charge from an elephant has
made embryo Nimrods bid a final adieu to the chase, incipient Gordon
Cummings might try their nerves by standing on railways till the engines
were within a few yards of them. Hunting elephants on foot would be not
less dangerous, unless the Ceylon mode of killing them by one shot could
be followed: it has never been tried in Africa.
Advancing to some wells beyond Letloche, at a spot named Kanne, we found
them carefully hedged round by the people of a Bakalahari village situated
near the spot. We had then sixty miles of country in front without water,
and very distressing for the oxen, as it is generally deep soft sand.
There is one sucking-place, around which were congregated great numbers of
Bushwomen with their egg-shells and reeds. Mathuluane now contained no
water, and Motlatsa only a small supply, so we sent the oxen across the
country to the deep well Nkauane, and half were lost on the way. When
found at last they had been five whole days without water. Very large
numbers of elands were met with as usual, though they seldom can get a sip
of drink.
Many of the plains here have large expanses of grass without trees, but
you seldom see a treeless horizon. The ostrich is generally seen quietly
feeding on some spot where no one can approach him without being detected
by his wary eye. As the wagon moves along far to the windward he thinks it
is intending to circumvent him, so he rushes up a mile or so from the
leeward, and so near to the front oxen that one sometimes gets a shot at
the silly bird. When he begins to run all the game in sight follow his
example. I have seen this folly taken advantage of when he was feeding
quietly in a valley open at both ends. A number of men would commence
running, as if to cut off his retreat from the end through which the wind
came; and although he had the whole country hundreds of miles before him
by going to the other end, on he madly rushed to get past the men, and so
was speared. He never swerves from the course he once adopts, but only
increases his speed.
When the ostrich is feeding his pace is from twenty to twenty-two inches;
when walking, but not feeding, it is twenty-six inches; and when
terrified, as in the case noticed, it is from eleven and a half to
thirteen and even fourteen feet in length. Only in one case was I at all
satisfied of being able to count the rate of speed by a stop-watch, and,
if I am not mistaken, there were thirty in ten seconds; generally one's
eye can no more follow the legs than it can the spokes of a carriage-wheel
in rapid motion. If we take the above number, and twelve feet stride as
the average pace, we have a speed of twenty-six miles an hour. It can not
be very much above that, and is therefore slower than a railway
locomotive. They are sometimes shot by the horseman making a cross cut to
their undeviating course, but few Englishmen ever succeed in killing them.
The ostrich begins to lay her eggs before she has fixed on a spot for a
nest, which is only a hollow a few inches deep in the sand, and about a
yard in diameter. Solitary eggs, named by the Bechuanas "lesetla", are
thus found lying forsaken all over the country, and become a prey to the
jackal. She seems averse to risking a spot for a nest, and often lays her
eggs in that of another ostrich, so that as many as forty-five have been
found in one nest. Some eggs contain small concretions of the matter which
forms the shell, as occurs also in the egg of the common fowl: this has
given rise to the idea of stones in the eggs. Both male and female assist
in the incubations; but the numbers of females being always greatest, it
is probable that cases occur in which the females have the entire charge.
Several eggs lie out of the nest, and are thought to be intended as food
for the first of the newly-hatched brood till the rest come out and enable
the whole to start in quest of food. I have several times seen
newly-hatched young in charge of the cock, who made a very good attempt at
appearing lame in the plover fashion, in order to draw off the attention
of pursuers. The young squat down and remain immovable when too small to
run far, but attain a wonderful degree of speed when about the size of
common fowls. It can not be asserted that ostriches are polygamous, though
they often appear to be so.
When caught they are easily tamed, but are of no use in their domesticated
state. The egg is possessed of very great vital power. One kept in a room
during more than three months, in a temperature about 60 Deg., when broken
was found to have a partially-developed live chick in it. The Bushmen
carefully avoid touching the eggs, or leaving marks of human feet near
them, when they find a nest. They go up the wind to the spot, and with a
long stick remove some of them occasionally, and, by preventing any
suspicion, keep the hen laying on for months, as we do with fowls. The
eggs have a strong, disagreeable flavor, which only the keen appetite of
the Desert can reconcile one to.
The Hottentots use their trowsers to carry home the twenty or twenty-five
eggs usually found in a nest; and it has happened that an Englishman,
intending to imitate this knowing dodge, comes to the wagons with
blistered legs, and, after great toil, finds all the eggs uneatable, from
having been some time sat upon. Our countrymen invariably do best when
they continue to think, speak, and act in their own proper character. The
food of the ostrich consists of pods and seeds of different kinds of
leguminous plants, with leaves of various plants; and, as these are often
hard and dry, he picks up a great quantity of pebbles, many of which are
as large as marbles. He picks up also some small bulbs, and occasionally a
wild melon to afford moisture, for one was found with a melon which had
choked him by sticking in his throat. It requires the utmost address of
the Bushmen, crawling for miles on their stomachs, to stalk them
successfully; yet the quantity of feathers collected annually shows that
the numbers slain must be considerable, as each bird has only a few in the
wings and tail. The male bird is of a jet black glossy color, with the
single exception of the white feathers, which are objects of trade.
Nothing can be finer than the adaptation of those flossy feathers for the
climate of the Kalahari, where these birds abound; for they afford a
perfect shade to the body, with free ventilation beneath them. The hen
ostrich is of a dark brownish-gray color, and so are the half-grown cocks.
The organs of vision in this bird are placed so high that he can detect an
enemy at a great distance, but the lion sometimes kills him. The flesh is
white and coarse, though, when in good condition, it resembles in some
degree that of a tough turkey. It seeks safety in flight; but when pursued
by dogs it may be seen to turn upon them and inflict a kick, which is
vigorously applied, and sometimes breaks the dog's back. |