The Rains Began While We Were At Naliele; This Is Much Later Than Usual;
But, Though The Barotse Valley Has Been In Need Of Rain,
The People Never Lack Abundance Of Food.
The showers are refreshing,
but the air feels hot and close; the thermometer, however, in a cool hut,
stands only at 84 Deg.
The access of the external air to any spot
at once raises its temperature above 90 Deg. A new attack of fever here
caused excessive languor; but, as I am already getting tired
of quoting my fevers, and never liked to read travels myself
where much was said about the illnesses of the traveler,
I shall henceforth endeavor to say little about them.
We here sent back the canoe of Sekeletu, and got the loan of others
from Mpololo. Eight riding oxen, and seven for slaughter,
were, according to the orders of that chief, also furnished;
some were intended for our own use, and others as presents
to the chiefs of the Balonda. Mpololo was particularly liberal
in giving all that Sekeletu ordered, though, as he feeds on the cattle
he has in charge, he might have felt it so much abstracted
from his own perquisites. Mpololo now acts the great man,
and is followed every where by a crowd of toadies, who sing songs
in disparagement of Mpepe, of whom he always lived in fear.
While Mpepe was alive, he too was regaled with the same fulsome adulation,
and now they curse him. They are very foul-tongued; equals, on meeting,
often greet each other with a profusion of oaths, and end the volley
with a laugh.
In coming up the river to Naliele we met a party of fugitive Barotse
returning to their homes, and, as the circumstance illustrates
the social status of these subjects of the Makololo, I introduce it here.
The villagers in question were the children, or serfs, if we may use the term,
of a young man of the same age and tribe as Sekeletu, who,
being of an irritable temper, went by the nickname of Sekobinyane -
a little slavish thing. His treatment of his servants was so bad
that most of them had fled; and when the Mambari came,
and, contrary to the orders of Sekeletu, purchased slaves,
Sekobinyane sold one or two of the Barotse children of his village.
The rest fled immediately to Masiko, and were gladly received
by that Barotse chief as his subjects.
When Sekeletu and I first ascended the Leeambye, we met Sekobinyane
coming down, on his way to Linyanti. On being asked the news,
he remained silent about the loss of his village, it being considered
a crime among the Makololo for any one to treat his people so ill
as to cause them to run away from him. He then passed us,
and, dreading the vengeance of Sekeletu for his crime, secretly made
his escape from Linyanti to Lake Ngami. He was sent for, however,
and the chief at the lake delivered him up, on Sekeletu declaring
that he had no intention of punishing him otherwise than by scolding.
He did not even do that, as Sekobinyane was evidently terrified enough,
and also became ill through fear.
The fugitive villagers remained only a few weeks with their new master Masiko,
and then fled back again, and were received as if they had done nothing wrong.
All united in abusing the conduct of Sekobinyane, and no one condemned
the fugitives; and the cattle, the use of which they had previously enjoyed,
never having been removed from their village, they re-established themselves
with apparent gladness.
This incident may give some idea of the serfdom of the subject tribes, and,
except that they are sometimes punished for running away and other offenses,
I can add nothing more by way of showing the true nature
of this form of servitude.
Leaving Naliele, amid abundance of good wishes for the success of
our expedition, and hopes that we might return accompanied with white traders,
we began again our ascent of the river. It was now beginning to rise,
though the rains had but just commenced in the valley. The banks are low,
but cleanly cut, and seldom sloping. At low water they are from
four to eight feet high, and make the river always assume very much
the aspect of a canal. They are in some parts of whitish, tenacious clay,
with strata of black clay intermixed, and black loam in sand,
or pure sand stratified. As the river rises it is always wearing
to one side or the other, and is known to have cut across from one bend
to another, and to form new channels. As we coast along the shore,
pieces which are undermined often fall in with a splash like that caused
by the plunge of an alligator, and endanger the canoe.
These perpendicular banks afford building-places to a pretty bee-eater,*
which loves to breed in society. The face of the sand-bank is perforated
with hundreds of holes leading to their nests, each of which is about a foot
apart from the other; and as we pass they pour out of their hiding-places,
and float overhead.
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* `Merops apiaster' and `M. bullockoides' (Smith).
-
A speckled kingfisher is seen nearly every hundred yards,
which builds in similar spots, and attracts the attention of herd-boys,
who dig out its nest for the sake of the young. This, and a most lovely
little blue and orange kingfisher, are seen every where along the banks,
dashing down like a shot into the water for their prey. A third,
seen more rarely, is as large as a pigeon, and is of a slaty color.
Another inhabitant of the banks is the sand-martin, which also likes company
in the work of raising a family. They never leave this part of the country.
One may see them preening themselves in the very depth of winter,
while the swallows, of which we shall yet speak, take winter trips.
I saw sand-martins at the Orange River during a period of winter frost;
it is, therefore, probable that they do not migrate even from thence.
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