Naliele, The Capital Of The Barotse, Is Built On A Mound Which Was
Constructed Artificially By Santuru, And Was His Store-House For Grain.
His Own Capital Stood About Five Hundred Yards To The South Of That,
In What Is Now The Bed Of The River.
All that remains of the largest mound
in the valley are a few cubic yards of earth, to erect
Which
cost the whole of the people of Santuru the labor of many years.
The same thing has happened to another ancient site of a town,
Linangelo, also on the left bank. It would seem, therefore,
that the river in this part of the valley must be wearing eastward.
No great rise of the river is required to submerge the whole valley;
a rise of ten feet above the present low-water mark would reach
the highest point it ever attains, as seen in the markings of the bank
on which stood Santuru's ancient capital, and two or three feet more
would deluge all the villages. This never happens, though the water sometimes
comes so near the foundations of the huts that the people can not move
outside the walls of reeds which encircle their villages.
When the river is compressed among the high rocky banks near Gonye,
it rises sixty feet.
The influence of the partial obstruction it meets with there
is seen in the more winding course of the river north of 16 Deg.;
and when the swell gets past Katima-molelo, it spreads out on the lands
on both banks toward Sesheke.
Santuru, at whose ancient granary we are staying, was a great hunter,
and very fond of taming wild animals. His people, aware of his taste,
brought to him every young antelope they could catch, and, among other things,
two young hippopotami. These animals gamboled in the river by day,
but never failed to remember to come up to Naliele for their suppers
of milk and meal. They were the wonder of the country, till a stranger,
happening to come to visit Santuru, saw them reclining in the sun,
and speared one of them on the supposition that it was wild.
The same unlucky accident happened to one of the cats I had brought
to Sekeletu. A stranger, seeing an animal he had never viewed before,
killed it, and brought the trophy to the chief, thinking that he had made
a very remarkable discovery; we thereby lost the breed of cats, of which,
from the swarms of mice, we stood in great need.
On making inquiries to ascertain whether Santuru, the Moloiana, had ever
been visited by white men, I could find no vestige of any such visit;*
there is no evidence of any of Santuru's people having ever seen a white man
before the arrival of Mr. Oswell and myself in 1851. The people have,
it is true, no written records; but any remarkable event here
is commemorated in names, as was observed by Park to be the case
in the countries he traversed.
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