Kafue reminds us a little of the Shire, flowing between
steep hanks, with fertile land on both sides. I t is a smaller
river, and has less current. Here it seems to come from
the west. The headman of the village, near which we encamped,
brought a present of meal, fowls, and sweet potatoes.
They have both the red and white varieties of this potato.
We have, on several occasions during this journey, felt the want
of vegetables, in a disagreeable craving which our diet of meat
and native meal could not satisfy. I t became worse and worse
till we got a meal of potatoes, which allayed it at once. A
great scarcity of vegetables prevails in these parts of Africa.
The natives collect several kinds of wild plants in the woods,
which they use no doubt for the purpose of driving off cravings
similar to those we experienced.
Owing to the strength of the wind, and the cranky state
of the canoes, it was late in the afternoon of the 11th
before our party was ferried over the Kafue. After cross-
ing, we were in the Bawe country. Fishhooks here, of
native workmanship, were observed to have barbs like the
European hooks: elsewhere the point of the hook is merely
bent in towards the shank, to have the same effect in keeping
on the fish as the barb. We slept near a village a short
distance above the ford. The people here are of Batoka
origin, the same as many of our men, and call themselves
Batonga (independents) or Balengi, and their language only
differs slightly from that of the Bakoa, who live between the
two rivers Kafue and Loangwa. The paramount Chief of
the district lives to the west of this place, and is called
Nchomokela—an hereditary title : the family burying-place
is on a small hill near this village. The women salute us
by clapping their hands and lullilooing as we enter and
leave a village, and the men, as they think, respectfully clap
their hands on their hips. Immense crops of mapira (holme
sorghum) are raised; one species of it forms a natural bend
on the seed-stalk, so that the massive ear hangs down. The
grain was heaped up on wooden stages, and so was a variety
of other products. The men are skilful hunters, and kill
elephants and buffaloes with long heavy spears. We halted
a few minutes on the morning of the 12th July, opposite
the narrow island of Sikakoa, which has a village on
its lower end. We were here told that Moselekatse’s chief
town is a month’s distance from this place. They had
heard, moreover, that the English had come to Moselekatse,
and told him it was wrong to kill men; and lie had replied
that he was bom to kill people, but would drop the habit;
and, since the English came, he had sent out his men, not
to kill as of yore, but to collect tribute of cloth and ivory.
This report referred to the arrival of the Bev. B. Moffat,
of Kuruman, who, we afterwards found, had established a
Mission. The statement is interesting as showing, that,
though imperfectly expressed, the purport of the Missionaries’
teaching had travelled, in a short' time, over 300
miles, and we know not how far the knowledge of the
English operations on the Coast spread inland.
When abreast of the high wooded island Kalabi we came
in contact with one of the game-laws of the country, which
has come down from the most ancient times. An old buffalo
crossed the path a few yards in front of u s; our guide threw
his small spear at its hip, and it was going off scarcely hurt,
when three rifle balls knocked it over. “ I t is mine,” said
the guide. He had wounded it first, and the established
native game-law is that the animal belongs to the man who
first draws blood; the two legs on one side, by the same law,
belonged to us for killing it. This beast was very old, blind of