It Is Named
By The Natives "Selali", And Is Believed To Be The Maker Of A Hinged Cover
For Its Nest.
You see a door, about the size of a shilling, lying beside
a deep hole of nearly similar diameter.
The inside of the door lying upward,
and which attracts your notice, is of a pure white silky substance,
like paper. The outer side is coated over with earth, precisely like that
in which the hole is made. If you try to lift it, you find it is fastened
by a hinge on one side, and, if it is turned over upon the hole,
it fits it exactly, and the earthy side being then uppermost,
it is quite impossible to detect the situation of the nest. Unfortunately,
this cavity for breeding is never seen except when the owner is out,
and has left the door open behind her.
In some parts of the country there are great numbers of a large,
beautiful yellow-spotted spider, the webs of which are about a yard
in diameter. The lines on which these webs are spun are suspended
from one tree to another, and are as thick as coarse thread.
The fibres radiate from a central point, where the insect waits for its prey.
The webs are placed perpendicularly, and a common occurrence in walking
is to get the face enveloped in them as a lady is in a veil.
Another kind of spider lives in society, and forms so great
a collection of webs placed at every angle, that the trunk of a tree
surrounded by them can not be seen. A piece of hedge is often
so hidden by this spider that the branches are invisible.
Another is seen on the inside of the walls of huts among the Makololo
in great abundance. It is round in shape, spotted, brown in color,
and the body half an inch in diameter; the spread of the legs
is an inch and a half. It makes a smooth spot for itself on the wall,
covered with the above-mentioned white silky substance. There it is seen
standing the whole day, and I never could ascertain how it fed.
It has no web, but a carpet, and is a harmless, though an ugly neighbor.
Immediately beyond Dilolo there is a large flat about twenty miles in breadth.
Here Shakatwala insisted on our remaining to get supplies of food
from Katema's subjects, before entering the uninhabited watery plains.
When asked the meaning of the name Dilolo, Shakatwala gave
the following account of the formation of the lake. A female chief,
called Moene (lord) Monenga, came one evening to the village of Mosogo,
a man who lived in the vicinity, but who had gone to hunt with his dogs.
She asked for a supply of food, and Mosogo's wife gave her
a sufficient quantity. Proceeding to another village standing on the spot
now occupied by the water, she preferred the same demand,
and was not only refused, but, when she uttered a threat
for their niggardliness, was taunted with the question, "What could she do
though she were thus treated?" In order to show what she could do,
she began a song, in slow time, and uttered her own name, Monenga-wo-o.
As she prolonged the last note, the village, people, fowls, and dogs
sank into the space now called Dilolo.
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