now saw many good-looking young men and women. The
dresses of the ladies are identical with those of Nubian
women in Upper Egypt. To a belt on the waist a great
number of strings are attached to hang all round the
person. These fringes are about six
or eight inches long. The matrons
wear in addition a skin cut like the
tails of the coatee formerly worn by
our dragoons. The younger girls
wear the waist-belt exhibited in the
Waist-belt. woodcut, ornamented with shells, and
have the fringes only in front. Marauding parties of Batoka,
calling themselves Makololo, have for some time had a
wholesome dread of Sinamane’s “ long spears.” Before
going to Tette our Batoka friend, Masakasa, was one of
a party that came to steal some of the young women; but
Sinamane, to their utter astonishment, attacked them so
furiously that the survivors barely escaped with their lives.
Masakasa had to flee so fast that he threw away his shield,
his spear, and his clothes, and returned home a wiser and a
sadder man.
O H A P T E E X V I.
Sinamane — Canoe navigation — Moemba — Water-drawing stockades Generosity
pf the Batoka—Purchase of a canoe — Ant-lions — Herd of Hippopotami
— Cataract doctor of Kariba—Albinos, human and hippopotamic —
Meet Sequasha, not quite so black as painted — Native mode of salutation
Karivua Gallant conduct of the Makololo — Breakfast interrupted by
Mambo Kazai —Dinner spoilt by pretended aid—Banyai—Bapids of Ke-
brabasa —Dr. Kirk in danger—Sad loss of MSS., &c.—Death of one of
our donkeys — Amiable squeamishness of Makololo — Dinner a la Panzo —
Beach Tette 23rd Nov. —“ Jacks of all trades ” — Imposition practised on
the King of Portugal’s Colonial scheme.
S in a m a n e ’s people cultivate large quantities of tobacco,
which they manufacture into balls for the Makololo market.
Twenty balls, weighing about three-quarters of a pound each,
are sold for a hoe. The tobacco is planted on low moist
spots on the banks of the Zambesi; and was in flower at
the time we were there, in October. Sinamane’s people appear
to have abundance of food, and are all in good condition.
He could sell us only two of his canoes; but lent us
three more to carry us as far as Moemba’s, where he thought
others might be purchased. They were manned by his own
canoe-men, who were to bring them back. The river is
about 250 yards wide, and flows serenely between high
banks towards the North-East. Below Sinamane’s the
banks are often worn down fifty feet, and composed of
shingle and gravel of igneous rocks, sometimes set in a
ferruginous matrix. The bottom is all gravel and shingle,
how formed we cannot imagine, unless in pot-holes in the
deep fissure above. The bottom above the Falls, save a
few rocks close by them, is generally sandy or of soft tufa.
Every damp spot is covered with maize, pumpkins, water