On reaching unflooded lands beyond the plain, we found
the villages there acknowledged the authority of the chief named
Katende,
and we discovered, also, to our surprise, that the almost level plain
we had passed forms the watershed between the southern and northern rivers,
for we had now entered a district in which the rivers flowed
in a northerly direction into the Kasai or Loke, near to which we now were,
while the rivers we had hitherto crossed were all running southward.
Having met with kind treatment and aid at the first village,
Katema's guides returned, and we were led to the N.N.W. by the inhabitants,
and descended into the very first really deep valley we had seen
since leaving Kolobeng. A stream ran along the bottom of a slope
of three or four hundred yards from the plains above.
We crossed this by a rustic bridge at present submerged thigh-deep
by the rains. The trees growing along the stream of this lovely valley
were thickly planted and very high. Many had sixty or eighty feet of
clean straight trunk, and beautiful flowers adorned the ground beneath them.
Ascending the opposite side, we came, in two hours' time,
to another valley, equally beautiful, and with a stream also in its centre.
It may seem mere trifling to note such an unimportant thing
as the occurrence of a valley, there being so many in every country
under the sun; but as these were branches of that in which
the Kasai or Loke flows, and both that river and its feeders
derive their water in a singular manner from the valley sides,
I may be excused for calling particular attention to the more furrowed nature
of the country.
At different points on the slopes of these valleys which
we now for the first time entered, there are oozing fountains,
surrounded by clumps of the same evergreen, straight, large-leaved trees
we have noticed along the streams. These spots are generally covered
with a mat of grassy vegetation, and possess more the character of bogs
than of fountains. They slowly discharge into the stream below,
and are so numerous along both banks as to give a peculiar character
to the landscape. These groups of sylvan vegetation are generally
of a rounded form, and the trunks of the trees are tall and straight,
while those on the level plains above are low and scraggy in their growth.
There can be little doubt but that the water, which stands for months
on the plains, soaks in, and finds its way into the rivers and rivulets
by percolating through the soil, and out by these oozing bogs;
and the difference between the growth of these trees, though they be of
different species, may be a proof that the stuntedness of those on the plains
is owing to being, in the course of each year, more subjected to drought
than moisture.
Reaching the village of Kabinje, in the evening he sent us
a present of tobacco, Mutokuane or "bang" (`Cannabis sativa'), and maize,
by the man who went forward to announce our arrival, and a message
expressing satisfaction at the prospect of having trade with the coast.
The westing we were making brought us among people who are frequently
visited by the Mambari as slave-dealers.
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