Sekeletu Is Always Accompanied By His Own Mopato, A Number Of Young Men
Of His Own Age.
When he sits down they crowd around him;
those who are nearest eat out of the same dish, for the Makololo chiefs
pride themselves on eating with their people.
He eats a little,
then beckons his neighbors to partake. When they have done so,
he perhaps beckons to some one at a distance to take a share; that person
starts forward, seizes the pot, and removes it to his own companions.
The comrades of Sekeletu, wishing to imitate him in riding on my old horse,
leaped on the backs of a number of half-broken Batoka oxen as they ran,
but, having neither saddle nor bridle, the number of tumbles they met with
was a source of much amusement to the rest. Troops of leches,
or, as they are here called, "lechwes", appeared feeding quite heedlessly
all over the flats; they exist here in prodigious herds,
although the numbers of them and of the "nakong" that are killed annually
must be enormous. Both are water antelopes, and, when the lands
we now tread upon are flooded, they betake themselves to the mounds
I have alluded to. The Makalaka, who are most expert
in the management of their small, thin, light canoes, come gently toward them;
the men stand upright in the canoe, though it is not more
than fifteen or eighteen inches wide and about fifteen feet long;
their paddles, ten feet in height, are of a kind of wood called molompi,
very light, yet as elastic as ash. With these they either punt or paddle,
according to the shallowness or depth of the water. When they perceive
the antelopes beginning to move they increase their speed, and pursue them
with great velocity. They make the water dash away from the gunwale,
and, though the leche goes off by a succession of prodigious bounds,
its feet appearing to touch the bottom at each spring,
they manage to spear great numbers of them.
The nakong often shares a similar fate. This is a new species,
rather smaller than the leche, and in shape has more of paunchiness
than any antelope I ever saw. Its gait closely resembles
the gallop of a dog when tired. The hair is long and rather sparse,
so that it is never sleek-looking. It is of a grayish-brown color,
and has horns twisted in the manner of a koodoo, but much smaller,
and with a double ridge winding round each of them.
Its habitat is the marsh and the muddy bogs; the great length of its foot
between the point of the toe and supplemental hoofs enables it
to make a print about a foot in length; it feeds by night,
and lies hid among the reeds and rushes by day; when pursued,
it dashes into sedgy places containing water, and immerses the whole body,
leaving only the point of the nose and ends of the horns exposed.
The hunters burn large patches of reed in order to drive the nakong
out of his lair; occasionally the ends of the horns project above the water;
but when it sees itself surrounded by enemies in canoes,
it will rather allow its horns to be scorched in the burning reed
than come forth from its hiding-place.
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