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David Livingstone;
Missionary Travels

Chapter 27

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Chapter 27.

  Low Hills -- Black Soldier-Ants; their Cannibalism --
  The Plasterer and its Chloroform -- White Ants; their Usefulness --
  Mutokwane-smoking; its Effects -- Border Territory --
  Healthy Table-lands -- Geological Formation -- Cicadae --
  Trees -- Flowers -- River Kalomo -- Physical Conformation of Country --
  Ridges, sanatoria -- A wounded Buffalo assisted -- Buffalo-bird --
  Rhinoceros-bird -- Leaders of Herds -- The Honey-guide --
  The White Mountain -- Mozuma River -- Sebituane's old Home --
  Hostile Village -- Prophetic Phrensy -- Food of the Elephant --
  Ant-hills -- Friendly Batoka -- Clothing despised -- Method of Salutation --
  Wild Fruits -- The Captive released -- Longings for Peace --
  Pingola's Conquests -- The Village of Monze -- Aspect of the Country --
  Visit from the Chief Monze and his Wife -- Central healthy Locations --
  Friendly Feelings of the People in reference to a white Resident --
  Fertility of the Soil -- Bashukulompo Mode of dressing their Hair --
  Gratitude of the Prisoner we released -- Kindness and Remarks
  of Monze's Sister -- Dip of the Rocks -- Vegetation --
  Generosity of the Inhabitants -- Their Anxiety for Medicine --
  Hooping-cough -- Birds and Rain.



NOVEMBER 27TH.  Still at Marimba's.  In the adjacent country palms abound,
but none of that species which yields the oil; indeed, that is met with
only near the coast.  There are numbers of flowers and bulbs just shooting up
from the soil.  The surface is rough, and broken into gullies;
and, though the country is parched, it has not that appearance,
so many trees having put forth their fresh green leaves
at the time the rains ought to have come.  Among the rest stands the mola,
with its dark brownish-green color and spreading oak-like form.
In the distance there are ranges of low hills.  On the north we have one
called Kanjele, and to the east that of Kaonka, to which we proceed to-morrow.
We have made a considerable detour to the north, both on account of our wish
to avoid the tsetse and to visit the people.  Those of Kaonka are
the last Batoka we shall meet, in friendship with the Makololo.

Walking down to the forest, after telling these poor people,
for the first time in their lives, that the Son of God
had so loved them as to come down from heaven to save them,
I observed many regiments of black soldier-ants returning from
their marauding expeditions.  These I have often noticed before
in different parts of the country; and as we had, even at Kolobeng,
an opportunity of observing their habits, I may give
a short account of them here.  They are black, with a slight tinge of gray,
about half an inch in length, and on the line of march appear
three or four abreast; when disturbed, they utter a distinct
hissing or chirping sound.  They follow a few leaders who never carry
any thing, and they seem to be guided by a scent left on the path
by the leaders; for, happening once to throw the water from my basin
behind a bush where I was dressing, it lighted on the path
by which a regiment had passed before I began my toilette,
and when they returned they were totally at a loss to find the way home,
though they continued searching for it nearly half an hour.
It was found only by one making a long circuit round the wetted spot.
The scent may have indicated also the propriety of their going
in one direction only.  If a handful of earth is thrown on the path
at the middle of the regiment, either on its way home or abroad,
those behind it are completely at a loss as to their farther progress.
Whatever it may be that guides them, they seem only to know
that they are not to return, for they come up to the handful of earth,
but will not cross it, though not a quarter of an inch high.
They wheel round and regain their path again, but never think of retreating
to the nest, or to the place where they have been stealing.
After a quarter of an hour's confusion and hissing, one may make
a circuit of a foot round the earth, and soon all follow in that
roundabout way.  When on their way to attack the abode of the white ants,
the latter may be observed rushing about in a state of great perturbation.
The black leaders, distinguished from the rest by their greater size,
especially in the region of the sting, then seize the white ants one by one,
and inflict a sting, which seems to inject a portion of fluid
similar in effect to chloroform, as it renders them insensible, but not dead,
and only able to move one or two front legs.  As the leaders toss them
on one side, the rank and file seize them and carry them off.

One morning I saw a party going forth on what has been supposed
to be a slave-hunting expedition.  They came to a stick, which, being inclosed
in a white-ant gallery, I knew contained numbers of this insect;
but I was surprised to see the black soldiers passing without touching it.
I lifted up the stick and broke a portion of the gallery,
and then laid it across the path in the middle of the black regiment.
The white ants, when uncovered, scampered about with great celerity,
hiding themselves under the leaves, but attracted little attention
from the black marauders till one of the leaders caught them,
and, applying his sting, laid them in an instant on one side
in a state of coma; the others then promptly seized them and rushed off.
On first observing these marauding insects at Kolobeng, I had the idea,
imbibed from a work of no less authority than Brougham's Paley,
that they seized the white ants in order to make them slaves;
but, having rescued a number of captives, I placed them aside,
and found that they never recovered from the state of insensibility
into which they had been thrown by the leaders.  I supposed then
that the insensibility had been caused by the soldiers
holding the necks of the white ants too tightly with their mandibles,
as that is the way they seize them; but even the pupae which I took
from the soldier-ants, though placed in a favorable temperature,
never became developed.  In addition to this, if any one examines
the orifice by which the black ant enters his barracks,
he will always find a little heap of hard heads and legs of white ants,
showing that these black ruffians are a grade lower than slave-stealers,
being actually cannibals.  Elsewhere I have seen a body of them
removing their eggs from a place in which they were likely
to be flooded by the rains; I calculated their numbers to be 1260;
they carried their eggs a certain distance, then laid them down,
when others took them and carried them farther on.  Every ant in the colony
seemed to be employed in this laborious occupation, yet there was not
a white slave-ant among them.  One cold morning I observed
a band of another species of black ant returning each with a captive;
there could be no doubt of their cannibal propensities,
for the "brutal soldiery" had already deprived the white ants of their legs.
The fluid in the stings of this species is of an intensely acid taste.

I had often noticed the stupefaction produced by the injection of a fluid
from the sting of certain insects before.  It is particularly observable
in a hymenopterous insect called the "plasterer" (`Pelopaeus Eckloni'),
which in his habits resembles somewhat the mason-bee.  It is about
an inch and a quarter in length, jet black in color, and may be observed
coming into houses, carrying in its fore legs a pellet of soft plaster
about the size of a pea.  When it has fixed upon a convenient spot
for its dwelling, it forms a cell about the same length as its body,
plastering the walls so as to be quite thin and smooth inside.
When this is finished, all except a round hole, it brings seven or eight
caterpillars or spiders, each of which is rendered insensible, but not killed,
by the fluid from its sting.  These it deposits in the cell,
and then one of its own larvae, which, as it grows, finds food quite fresh.
The insects are in a state of coma, but the presence of vitality
prevents putridity, or that drying up which would otherwise take place
in this climate.  By the time the young insect is full grown and its wings
completely developed, the food is done.  It then pierces the wall of its cell
at the former door, or place last filled up by its parent,
flies off, and begins life for itself.  The plasterer is a most useful insect,
as it acts as a check on the inordinate increase of caterpillars and spiders.
It may often be seen with a caterpillar or even a cricket much larger
than itself, but they lie perfectly still after the injection of chloroform,
and the plasterer, placing a row of legs on each side of the body,
uses both legs and wings in trailing the victim along.
The fluid in each case is, I suppose, designed to cause insensibility,
and likewise act as an antiseptic, the death of the victims
being without pain.

Without these black soldier-ants the country would be overrun
by the white ants; they are so extremely prolific, and nothing can exceed
the energy with which they work.  They perform a most important part
in the economy of nature by burying vegetable matter as quickly
beneath the soil as the ferocious red ant does dead animal substances.
The white ant keeps generally out of sight, and works under galleries
constructed by night to screen them from the observation of birds.
At some given signal, however, I never could ascertain what,
they rush out by hundreds, and the sound of their mandibles
cutting grass into lengths may be heard like a gentle wind
murmuring through the leaves of the trees.  They drag these pieces
to the doors of their abodes, and after some hours' toil leave off work,
and many of the bits of grass may be seen collected around the orifice.
They continue out of sight for perhaps a month, but they are never idle.
On one occasion, a good bundle of grass was laid down for my bed
on a spot which was quite smooth and destitute of plants.
The ants at once sounded the call to a good supply of grass.
I heard them incessantly nibbling and carrying away all that night;
and they continued all next day (Sunday), and all that night too,
with unabated energy.  They had thus been thirty-six hours at it,
and seemed as fresh as ever.  In some situations, if we remained a day,
they devoured the grass beneath my mat, and would have eaten that too
had we not laid down more grass.  At some of their operations
they beat time in a curious manner.  Hundreds of them are engaged
in building a large tube, and they wish to beat it smooth.  At a signal,
they all give three or four energetic beats on the plaster in unison.
It produces a sound like the dropping of rain off a bush when touched.
These insects are the chief agents employed in forming a fertile soil.
But for their labors, the tropical forests, bad as they are now
with fallen trees, would be a thousand times worse.  They would be impassable
on account of the heaps of dead vegetation lying on the surface, and emitting
worse effluvia than the comparatively small unburied collections do now.
When one looks at the wonderful adaptations throughout creation,
and the varied operations carried on with such wisdom and skill,
the idea of second causes looks clumsy.  We are viewing
the direct handiwork of Him who is the one and only Power in the universe;
wonderful in counsel; in whom we all live, and move, and have our being.

The Batoka of these parts are very degraded in their appearance,
and are not likely to improve, either physically or mentally,
while so much addicted to smoking the mutokwane (`Cannabis sativa').
They like its narcotic effects, though the violent fit of coughing
which follows a couple of puffs of smoke appears distressing, and causes
a feeling of disgust in the spectator.  This is not diminished on seeing
the usual practice of taking a mouthful of water, and squirting it out
together with the smoke, then uttering a string of half-incoherent sentences,
usually in self-praise.  This pernicious weed is extensively used
in all the tribes of the interior.  It causes a species of phrensy,
and Sebituane's soldiers, on coming in sight of their enemies,
sat down and smoked it, in order that they might make an effective onslaught.
I was unable to prevail on Sekeletu and the young Makololo
to forego its use, although they can not point to an old man in the tribe
who has been addicted to this indulgence.  I believe it was
the proximate cause of Sebituane's last illness, for it sometimes
occasions pneumonia.  Never having tried it, I can not describe
the pleasurable effects it is said to produce, but the hashish
in use among the Turks is simply an extract of the same plant,
and that, like opium, produces different effects on different individuals.
Some view every thing as if looking in through the wide end of a telescope,
and others, in passing over a straw, lift up their feet as if about to cross
the trunk of a tree.  The Portuguese in Angola have such a belief
in its deleterious effects that the use of it by a slave
is considered a crime.

NOVEMBER 28TH.  The inhabitants of the last of Kaonka's villages
complained of being plundered by the independent Batoka.
The tribes in front of this are regarded by the Makololo
as in a state of rebellion.  I promised to speak to the rebels on the subject,
and enjoined on Kaonka the duty of giving them no offense.  According to
Sekeletu's order, Kaonka gave us the tribute of maize-corn and ground-nuts,
which would otherwise have gone to Linyanti.  This had been done
at every village, and we thereby saved the people the trouble of a journey
to the capital.  My own Batoka had brought away such loads of provisions
from their homes that we were in no want of food.

After leaving Kaonka we traveled over an uninhabited, gently undulating,
and most beautiful district, the border territory between
those who accept and those who reject the sway of the Makololo.
The face of the country appears as if in long waves, running north and south.
There are no rivers, though water stands in pools in the hollows.
We were now come into the country which my people all magnify
as a perfect paradise.  Sebituane was driven from it by the Matebele.
It suited him exactly for cattle, corn, and health.  The soil is dry,
and often a reddish sand; there are few trees, but fine large shady ones
stand dotted here and there over the country where towns formerly stood.
One of the fig family I measured, and found to be forty feet in circumference;
the heart had been burned out, and some one had made a lodging in it,
for we saw the remains of a bed and a fire.  The sight of the open country,
with the increased altitude we were attaining, was most refreshing
to the spirits.  Large game abound.  We see in the distance buffaloes, elands,
hartebeest, gnus, and elephants, all very tame, as no one disturbs them.
Lions, which always accompany other large animals, roared about us,
but, as it was moonlight, there was no danger.  In the evening,
while standing on a mass of granite, one began to roar at me,
though it was still light.  The temperature was pleasant, as the rains,
though not universal, had fallen in many places.  It was very cloudy,
preventing observations.  The temperature at 6 A.M. was 70 Deg.,
at midday 90 Deg., in the evening 84 Deg.  This is very pleasant
on the high lands, with but little moisture in the air.

The different rocks to the westward of Kaonka's, talcose gneiss
and white mica schist, generally dip toward the west, but at Kaonka's,
large rounded masses of granite, containing black mica, began to appear.
The outer rind of it inclines to peel off, and large crystals project
on the exposed surface.

In passing through some parts where a good shower of rain has fallen,
the stridulous piercing notes of the cicadae are perfectly deafening;
a drab-colored cricket joins the chorus with a sharp sound,
which has as little modulation as the drone of a Scottish bagpipe.
I could not conceive how so small a thing could raise such a sound; it seemed
to make the ground over it thrill.  When cicadae, crickets, and frogs unite,
their music may be heard at the distance of a quarter of a mile.

A tree attracted my attention as new, the leaves being like
those of an acacia, but the ends of the branches from which they grew
resembled closely oblong fir-cones.  The corn-poppy was abundant,
and many of the trees, flowering bulbs, and plants were identical with those
in Pungo Andongo.  A flower as white as the snowdrop now begins to appear,
and farther on it spots the whole sward with its beautiful pure white.
A fresh crop appears every morning, and if the day is cloudy
they do not expand till the afternoon.  In an hour or so they droop and die.
They are named by the natives, from their shape, "Tlaku ea pitse",
hoof of zebra.  I carried several of the somewhat bulbous roots
of this pretty flower till I reached the Mauritius.

On the 30th we crossed the River Kalomo, which is about 50 yards broad,
and is the only stream that never dries up on this ridge.
The current is rapid, and its course is toward the south,
as it joins the Zambesi at some distance below the falls.
The Unguesi and Lekone, with their feeders, flow westward,
this river to the south, and all those to which we are about to come take
an easterly direction.  We were thus at the apex of the ridge, and found that,
as water boiled at 202 Deg., our altitude above the level of the sea
was over 5000 feet.  Here the granite crops out again in great rounded masses
which change the dip of the gneiss and mica schist rocks from the westward
to the eastward.  In crossing the western ridge I mentioned the clay shale
or keele formation, a section of which we have in the valley of the Quango:
the strata there lie nearly horizontal, but on this ridge
the granite seems to have been the active agent of elevation,
for the rocks, both on its east and west, abut against it.
Both eastern and western ridges are known to be comparatively salubrious,
and in this respect, as well as in the general aspect of the country,
they resemble that most healthy of all healthy climates,
the interior of South Africa, near and adjacent to the Desert.
This ridge has neither fountain nor marsh upon it, and east of the Kalomo
we look upon treeless undulating plains covered with short grass.
From a point somewhat near to the great falls, this ridge or oblong mound
trends away to the northeast, and there treeless elevated plains again appear.
Then again the ridge is said to bend away from the falls to the southeast,
the Mashona country, or rather their mountains, appearing,
according to Mr. Moffat, about four days east of Matlokotloko,
the present residence of Mosilikatse.  In reference to this ridge he makes
the interesting remark, "I observed a number of the Angora goat, most of them
being white; and their long soft hair, covering their entire bodies
to the ground, made them look like animals moving along without feet."*

--
* Moffat's "Visit to Mosilikatse".  -- Royal Geographical Society's Journal,
  vol. xxvi., p. 96.
--

It is impossible to say how much farther to the north these subtending ridges
may stretch.  There is reason to believe that, though the same
general form of country obtains, they are not flanked by abrupt hills
between the latitude 12 Deg. south and the equator.  The inquiry is worthy
the attention of travelers.  As they are known to be favorable to health,
the Makololo, who have been nearly all cut off by fevers in the valley,
declaring that here they never had a headache, they may even be recommended
as a sanatorium for those whose enterprise leads them into Africa,
either for the advancement of scientific knowledge, or for the purposes
of trade or benevolence.  In the case of the eastern ridge,
we have water carriage, with only one short rapid as an obstruction,
right up to its base; and if a quick passage can be effected during
the healthy part of the year, there would be no danger of loss of health
during a long stay on these high lands afterward.  How much farther
do these high ridges extend?  The eastern one seems to bend in considerably
toward the great falls; and the strike of the rocks indicating that,
farther to the N.N.E. than my investigations extend, it may not,
at a few degrees of latitude beyond, be more than 300 or 350 miles
from the coast.  They at least merit inquiry, for they afford
a prospect to Europeans of situations superior in point of salubrity
to any of those on the coast; and so on the western side of the continent;
for it is a fact that many parts in the interior of Angola, which were
formerly thought to be unhealthy on account of their distance inland,
have been found, as population advanced, to be the most healthy spots
in the country.  Did the great Niger expedition turn back
when near such a desirable position for its stricken and prostrate members?

The distances from top to top of the ridges may be about 10 Deg. of longitude,
or 600 geographical miles.  I can not hear of a hill ON either ridge,
and there are scarcely any in the space inclosed by them.
The Monakadze is the highest, but that is not more than a thousand feet
above the flat valley.  On account of this want of hills
in the part of the country which, by gentle undulations, leads one insensibly
up to an altitude of 5000 feet above the level of the sea, I have adopted
the agricultural term ridges, for they partake very much of the character
of the oblong mounds with which we are all familiar.  And we shall yet see
that the mountains which are met with outside these ridges
are only a low fringe, many of which are not of much greater altitude
than even the bottom of the great central valley.  If we leave out of view
the greater breadth of the central basin at other parts, and speak only
of the comparatively narrow part formed by the bend to the westward
of the eastern ridge, we might say that the form of this region
is a broad furrow in the middle, with an elevated ridge about 200 miles broad
on either side, the land sloping thence, on both sides, to the sea.
If I am right in believing the granite to be the cause of the elevation
of this ridge, the direction in which the strike of the rocks
trends to the N.N.E. may indicate that the same geological structure
prevails farther north, and two or three lakes which exist in that direction
may be of exactly the same nature with Lake Ngami, having been diminished
to their present size by the same kind of agency as that which formed
the falls of Victoria.

We met an elephant on the Kalomo which had no tusks.  This is as rare a thing
in Africa as it is to find them with tusks in Ceylon.  As soon as she saw us
she made off.  It is remarkable to see the fear of man operating
even on this huge beast.  Buffaloes abound, and we see large herds of them
feeding in all directions by day.  When much disturbed by man
they retire into the densest parts of the forest, and feed by night only.
We secured a fine large bull by crawling close to a herd.
When shot, he fell down, and the rest, not seeing their enemy, gazed about,
wondering where the danger lay.  The others came back to it,
and, when we showed ourselves, much to the amusement of my companions,
they lifted him up with their horns, and, half supporting him in the crowd,
bore him away.  All these wild animals usually gore a wounded companion,
and expel him from the herd; even zebras bite and kick
an unfortunate or a diseased one.  It is intended by this instinct
that none but the perfect and healthy ones should propagate the species.
In this case they manifested their usual propensity to gore the wounded,
but our appearance at that moment caused them to take flight,
and this, with the goring being continued a little, gave my men the impression
that they were helping away their wounded companion.  He was shot between
the fourth and fifth ribs; the ball passed through both lungs and a rib
on the opposite side, and then lodged beneath the skin.  But, though it was
eight ounces in weight, yet he ran off some distance, and was secured
only by the people driving him into a pool of water and killing him there
with their spears.  The herd ran away in the direction of our camp,
and then came bounding past us again.  We took refuge on a large ant-hill,
and as they rushed by us at full gallop I had a good opportunity of seeing
that the leader of a herd of about sixty was an old cow;
all the others allowed her a full half-length in their front.  On her withers
sat about twenty buffalo-birds (`Textor erythrorhynchus', Smith),
which act the part of guardian spirits to the animals.  When the buffalo
is quietly feeding, this bird may be seen hopping on the ground
picking up food, or sitting on its back ridding it of the insects
with which their skins are sometimes infested.  The sight of the bird
being much more acute than that of the buffalo, it is soon alarmed
by the approach of any danger, and, flying up, the buffaloes instantly
raise their heads to discover the cause which has led to the sudden flight
of their guardian.  They sometimes accompany the buffaloes in their flight
on the wing, at other times they sit as above described.

Another African bird, namely, the `Buphaga Africana', attends the rhinoceros
for a similar purpose.  It is called "kala" in the language of the Bechuanas.
When these people wish to express their dependence upon another,
they address him as "my rhinoceros", as if they were the birds.
The satellites of a chief go by the same name.  This bird can not be said
to depend entirely on the insects on that animal, for its hard, hairless skin
is a protection against all except a few spotted ticks; but it seems to be
attached to the beast, somewhat as the domestic dog is to man;
and while the buffalo is alarmed by the sudden flying up of its sentinel,
the rhinoceros, not having keen sight, but an acute ear,
is warned by the cry of its associate, the `Buphaga Africana'.
The rhinoceros feeds by night, and its sentinel is frequently
heard in the morning uttering its well-known call, as it searches for
its bulky companion.  One species of this bird, observed in Angola,
possesses a bill of a peculiar scoop or stone forceps form,
as if intended only to tear off insects from the skin; and its claws
are as sharp as needles, enabling it to hang on to an animal's ear
while performing a useful service within it.  This sharpness of the claws
allows the bird to cling to the nearly insensible cuticle without irritating
the nerves of pain on the true skin, exactly as a burr does to the human hand;
but in the case of the `Buphaga Africana' and `erythrorhyncha', other food
is partaken of, for we observed flocks of them roosting on the reeds,
in spots where neither tame nor wild animals were to be found.

The most wary animal in a herd is generally the "leader".
When it is shot the others often seem at a loss what to do,
and stop in a state of bewilderment.  I have seen them
attempt to follow each other and appear quite confused,
no one knowing for half a minute or more where to direct the flight.
On one occasion I happened to shoot the leader, a young zebra mare,
which at some former time had been bitten on the hind leg
by a carnivorous animal, and, thereby made unusually wary,
had, in consequence, become a leader.  If they see either
one of their own herd or any other animal taking to flight,
wild animals invariably flee.  The most timid thus naturally leads the rest.
It is not any other peculiarity, but simply this provision,
which is given them for the preservation of the race.
The great increase of wariness which is seen to occur when the females
bring forth their young, causes all the leaders to be at that time females;
and there is a probability that the separation of sexes into distinct herds,
which is annually observed in many antelopes, arises from the simple fact
that the greater caution of the she antelopes is partaken of
only by the young males, and their more frequent flights now have
the effect of leaving the old males behind.  I am inclined to believe this,
because, though the antelopes, as the pallahs, etc., are frequently
in separate herds, they are never seen in the act of expelling the males.
There may be some other reason in the case of the elephants;
but the male and female elephants are never seen in one herd.
The young males remain with their dams only until they are full grown;
and so constantly is the separation maintained, that any one
familiar with them, on seeing a picture with the sexes mixed,
would immediately conclude that the artist had made it from his imagination,
and not from sight.

DECEMBER 2, 1855.  We remained near a small hill, called Maundo, where we
began to be frequently invited by the honey-guide (`Cuculus indicator').
Wishing to ascertain the truth of the native assertion
that this bird is a deceiver, and by its call sometimes leads
to a wild beast and not to honey, I inquired if any of my men
had ever been led by this friendly little bird to any thing else
than what its name implies.  Only one of the 114 could say
he had been led to an elephant instead of a hive, like myself
with the black rhinoceros mentioned before.  I am quite convinced
that the majority of people who commit themselves to its guidance
are led to honey, and to it alone.

On the 3d we crossed the River Mozuma, or River of Dila,
having traveled through a beautifully undulating pastoral country.
To the south, and a little east of this, stands the hill Taba Cheu,
or "White Mountain", from a mass of white rock, probably dolomite,
on its top.  But none of the hills are of any great altitude.
When I heard this mountain described at Linyanti I thought
the glistening substance might be snow, and my informants were so loud
in their assertions of its exceeding great altitude that I was startled
with the idea; but I had quite forgotten that I was speaking with men
who had been accustomed to plains, and knew nothing of very high mountains.
When I inquired what the white substance was, they at once replied
it was a kind of rock.  I expected to have come nearer to it,
and would have ascended it; but we were led to go to the northeast.
Yet I doubt not that the native testimony of its being stone is true.
The distant ranges of hills which line the banks of the Zambesi
on the southeast, and landscapes which permit the eye to range
over twenty or thirty miles at a time, with short grass under our feet,
were especially refreshing sights to those who had traveled
for months together over the confined views of the flat forest,
and among the tangled rank herbage of the great valley.

The Mozuma, or River of Dila, was the first water-course which indicated
that we were now on the slopes toward the eastern coast.
It contained no flowing water, but revealed in its banks
what gave me great pleasure at the time -- pieces of lignite,
possibly indicating the existence of a mineral, namely, coal,
the want of which in the central country I had always deplored.
Again and again we came to the ruins of large towns,
containing the only hieroglyphics of this country, worn mill-stones,
with the round ball of quartz with which the grinding was effected.
Great numbers of these balls were lying about, showing that the depopulation
had been the result of war; for, had the people removed in peace,
they would have taken the balls with them.

At the River of Dila we saw the spot where Sebituane lived,
and Sekwebu pointed out the heaps of bones of cattle which the Makololo
had been obliged to slaughter after performing a march with great herds
captured from the Batoka through a patch of the fatal tsetse.
When Sebituane saw the symptoms of the poison, he gave orders to his people
to eat the cattle.  He still had vast numbers; and when the Matebele,
crossing the Zambesi opposite this part, came to attack him,
he invited the Batoka to take repossession of their herds,
he having so many as to be unable to guide them in their flight.  The country
was at that time exceedingly rich in cattle, and, besides pasturage,
it is all well adapted for the cultivation of native produce.
Being on the eastern slope of the ridge, it receives more rain
than any part of the westward.  Sekwebu had been instructed
to point out to me the advantages of this position for a settlement,
as that which all the Makololo had never ceased to regret.  It needed
no eulogy from Sekwebu; I admired it myself, and the enjoyment of good health
in fine open scenery had an exhilarating effect on my spirits.  The great want
was population, the Batoka having all taken refuge in the hills.
We were now in the vicinity of those whom the Makololo deem rebels,
and felt some anxiety as to how we should be received.

On the 4th we reached their first village.  Remaining at a distance
of a quarter of a mile, we sent two men to inform them who we were,
and that our purposes were peaceful.  The head man came and spoke civilly,
but, when nearly dark, the people of another village arrived
and behaved very differently.  They began by trying to spear a young man
who had gone for water.  Then they approached us, and one came forward
howling at the top of his voice in the most hideous manner; his eyes were
shot out, his lips covered with foam, and every muscle of his frame quivered.
He came near to me, and, having a small battle-axe in his hand,
alarmed my men lest he might do violence; but they were afraid
to disobey my previous orders, and to follow their own inclination
by knocking him on the head.  I felt a little alarmed too,
but would not show fear before my own people or strangers,
and kept a sharp look-out on the little battle-axe.  It seemed to me
a case of ecstasy or prophetic phrensy, voluntarily produced.
I felt it would be a sorry way to leave the world, to get my head chopped
by a mad savage, though that, perhaps, would be preferable to
hydrophobia or delirium tremens.  Sekwebu took a spear in his hand,
as if to pierce a bit of leather, but in reality to plunge it into the man
if he offered violence to me.  After my courage had been sufficiently tested,
I beckoned with the head to the civil head man to remove him,
and he did so by drawing him aside.  This man pretended not to know
what he was doing.  I would fain have felt his pulse, to ascertain
whether the violent trembling were not feigned, but had not much inclination
to go near the battle-axe again.  There was, however, a flow of perspiration,
and the excitement continued fully half an hour, then gradually ceased.
This paroxysm is the direct opposite of hypnotism, and it is singular
that it has not been tried in Europe as well as clairvoyance.
This second batch of visitors took no pains to conceal their contempt
for our small party, saying to each other, in a tone of triumph, "They are
quite a Godsend!" literally, "God has apportioned them to us."  "They are lost
among the tribes!"  "They have wandered in order to be destroyed,
and what can they do without shields among so many?"  Some of them asked
if there were no other parties.  Sekeletu had ordered my men
not to take their shields, as in the case of my first company.
We were looked upon as unarmed, and an easy prey.  We prepared
against a night attack by discharging and reloading our guns,
which were exactly the same in number (five) as on the former occasion,
as I allowed my late companions to retain those which I purchased at Loanda.
We were not molested, but some of the enemy tried to lead us toward
the Bashukulompo, who are considered to be the fiercest race in this quarter.
As we knew our direction to the confluence of the Kafue and Zambesi,
we declined their guidance, and the civil head man of the evening before
then came along with us.  Crowds of natives hovered round us in the forest;
but he ran forward and explained, and we were not molested.
That night we slept by a little village under a low range of hills,
which are called Chizamena.  The country here is more woody
than on the high lands we had left, but the trees are not in general large.
Great numbers of them have been broken off by elephants a foot or two
from the ground:  they thus seem pollarded from that point.
This animal never seriously lessens the number of trees; indeed,
I have often been struck by the very little damage he does in a forest.
His food consists more of bulbs, tubers, roots, and branches,
than any thing else.  Where they have been feeding, great numbers of trees,
as thick as a man's body, are seen twisted down or broken off,
in order that they may feed on the tender shoots at the tops.
They are said sometimes to unite in wrenching down large trees.
The natives in the interior believe that the elephant never touches grass,
and I never saw evidence of his having grazed until we came near to Tete,
and then he had fed on grass in seed only; this seed contains
so much farinaceous matter that the natives collect it for their own food.

This part of the country abounds in ant-hills.  In the open parts
they are studded over the surface exactly as haycocks are in harvest,
or heaps of manure in spring, rather disfiguring the landscape.
In the woods they are as large as round haystacks, 40 or 50 feet in diameter
at the base, and at least 20 feet high.  These are more fertile
than the rest of the land, and here they are the chief garden-ground
for maize, pumpkins, and tobacco.

When we had passed the outskirting villages, which alone consider themselves
in a state of war with the Makololo, we found the Batoka, or Batonga,
as they here call themselves, quite friendly.  Great numbers of them came
from all the surrounding villages with presents of maize and masuka,
and expressed great joy at the first appearance of a white man,
and harbinger of peace.  The women clothe themselves better than the Balonda,
but the men go `in puris naturalibus'.  They walk about without the smallest
sense of shame.  They have even lost the tradition of the "fig-leaf".
I asked a fine, large-bodied old man if he did not think it would be better
to adopt a little covering.  He looked with a pitying leer,
and laughed with surprise at my thinking him at all indecent;
he evidently considered himself above such weak superstition.
I told them that, on my return, I should have my family with me,
and no one must come near us in that state.  "What shall we put on?
we have no clothing."  It was considered a good joke when I told them that,
if they had nothing else, they must put on a bunch of grass.

The farther we advanced, the more we found the country swarming
with inhabitants.  Great numbers came to see the white man, a sight they had
never beheld before.  They always brought presents of maize and masuka.
Their mode of salutation is quite singular.  They throw themselves
on their backs on the ground, and, rolling from side to side,
slap the outside of their thighs as expressions of thankfulness and welcome,
uttering the words "Kina bomba."  This method of salutation was to me
very disagreeable, and I never could get reconciled to it.  I called out,
"Stop, stop; I don't want that;" but they, imagining I was dissatisfied,
only tumbled about more furiously, and slapped their thighs
with greater vigor.  The men being totally unclothed, this performance
imparted to my mind a painful sense of their extreme degradation.
My own Batoka were much more degraded than the Barotse, and more reckless.
We had to keep a strict watch, so as not to be involved
by their thieving from the inhabitants, in whose country and power we were.
We had also to watch the use they made of their tongues,
for some within hearing of the villagers would say, "I broke all the pots
of that village," or, "I killed a man there."  They were eager to recount
their soldier deeds, when they were in company with the Makololo
in former times as a conquering army.  They were thus placing us in danger
by their remarks.  I called them together, and spoke to them
about their folly, and gave them a pretty plain intimation
that I meant to insist upon as complete subordination as I had secured
in my former journey, as being necessary for the safety of the party.
Happily, it never was needful to resort to any other measure
for their obedience, as they all believed that I would enforce it.

In connection with the low state of the Batoka, I was led to think
on the people of Kuruman, who were equally degraded and equally depraved.
There a man scorned to shed a tear.  It would have been "tlolo",
or transgression.  Weeping, such as Dr. Kane describes among the Esquimaux,
is therefore quite unknown in that country.  But I have witnessed
instances like this:  Baba, a mighty hunter -- the interpreter who accompanied
Captain Harris, and who was ultimately killed by a rhinoceros -- sat listening
to the Gospel in the church at Kuruman, and the gracious words of Christ,
made to touch his heart, evidently by the Holy Spirit, melted him into tears;
I have seen him and others sink down to the ground weeping.
When Baba was lying mangled by the furious beast which tore him off his horse,
he shed no tear, but quietly prayed as long as he was conscious.
I had no hand in his instruction:  if these Batoka ever become like him,
and they may, the influence that effects it must be divine.

A very large portion of this quarter is covered with masuka-trees,
and the ground was so strewed with the pleasant fruit
that my men kept eating it constantly as we marched along.
We saw a smaller kind of the same tree, named Molondo,
the fruit of which is about the size of marbles, having a tender skin,
and slight acidity of taste mingled with its sweetness.
Another tree which is said to yield good fruit is named Sombo,
but it was not ripe at this season.

DECEMBER 6TH.  We passed the night near a series of villages.
Before we came to a stand under our tree, a man came running to us
with hands and arms firmly bound with cords behind his back,
entreating me to release him.  When I had dismounted,
the head man of the village advanced, and I inquired the prisoner's offense.
He stated that he had come from the Bashukulompo as a fugitive,
and he had given him a wife and garden and a supply of seed;
but, on refusing a demand for more, the prisoner had threatened to kill him,
and had been seen the night before skulking about the village,
apparently with that intention.  I declined interceding
unless he would confess to his father-in-law, and promise amendment.
He at first refused to promise to abstain from violence, but afterward agreed.
The father-in-law then said that he would take him to the village
and release him, but the prisoner cried out bitterly, "He will kill me there;
don't leave me, white man."  I ordered a knife, and one of the villagers
released him on the spot.  His arms were cut by the cords,
and he was quite lame from the blows he had received.

These villagers supplied us abundantly with ground-nuts, maize, and corn.
All expressed great satisfaction on hearing my message,
as I directed their attention to Jesus as their Savior,
whose word is "Peace on earth, and good-will to men."  They called out,
"We are tired of flight; give us rest and sleep."  They of course
did not understand the full import of the message, but it was no wonder
that they eagerly seized the idea of peace.  Their country has been visited
by successive scourges during the last half century, and they are now
"a nation scattered and peeled."  When Sebituane came,
the cattle were innumerable, and yet these were the remnants only,
left by a chief called Pingola, who came from the northeast.
He swept across the whole territory inhabited by his cattle-loving countrymen,
devouring oxen, cows, and calves, without retaining a single head.  He seems
to have been actuated by a simple love of conquest, and is an instance
of what has occurred two or three times in every century in this country,
from time immemorial.  A man or more energy or ambition than his fellows
rises up and conquers a large territory, but as soon as he dies
the power he built up is gone, and his reign, having been one of terror,
is not perpetuated.  This, and the want of literature, have prevented
the establishment of any great empire in the interior of Africa.
Pingola effected his conquests by carrying numbers of smith's bellows
with him.  The arrow-heads were heated before shooting into a town,
and when a wound was inflicted on either man or beast, great confusion ensued.
After Pingola came Sebituane, and after him the Matebele of Mosilikatse;
and these successive inroads have reduced the Batoka to a state in which
they naturally rejoice at the prospect of deliverance and peace.

We spent Sunday, the 10th, at Monze's village, who is considered
the chief of all the Batoka we have seen.  He lives near the hill Kisekise,
whence we have a view of at least thirty miles of open undulating country,
covered with short grass, and having but few trees.  These open lawns
would in any other land, as well as this, be termed pastoral,
but the people have now no cattle, and only a few goats and fowls.
They are located all over the country in small villages,
and cultivate large gardens.  They are said to have adopted this wide-spread
mode of habitation in order to give alarm should any enemy appear.
In former times they lived in large towns.  In the distance (southeast)
we see ranges of dark mountains along the banks of the Zambesi,
and are told of the existence there of the rapid named Kansala,
which is said to impede the navigation.  The river is reported
to be placid above that as far as the territory of Sinamane, a Batoka chief,
who is said to command it after it emerges smooth again below the falls.
Kansala is the only rapid reported in the river until we come to Kebrabasa,
twenty or thirty miles above Tete.  On the north we have mountains appearing
above the horizon, which are said to be on the banks of the Kafue.

The chief Monze came to us on Sunday morning, wrapped in a large cloth,
and rolled himself about in the dust, screaming "Kina bomba," as they all do.
The sight of great naked men wallowing on the ground, though intended
to do me honor, was always very painful; it made me feel thankful
that my lot had been cast in such different circumstances
from that of so many of my fellow-men.  One of his wives accompanied him;
she would have been comely if her teeth had been spared;
she had a little battle-axe in her hand, and helped her husband to scream.
She was much excited, for she had never seen a white man before.
We rather liked Monze, for he soon felt at home among us,
and kept up conversation during much of the day.  One head man of a village
after another arrived, and each of them supplied us liberally
with maize, ground-nuts, and corn.  Monze gave us a goat and a fowl,
and appeared highly satisfied with a present of some handkerchiefs
I had got in my supplies left at the island.  Being of printed cotton,
they excited great admiration; and when I put a gaudy-colored one
as a shawl about his child, he said that he would send for all his people
to make a dance about it.  In telling them that my object
was to open up a path whereby they might, by getting merchandise for ivory,
avoid the guilt of selling their children, I asked Monze,
with about 150 of his men, if they would like a white man
to live among them and teach them.  All expressed high satisfaction
at the prospect of the white man and his path:  they would protect
both him and his property.  I asked the question, because it would be
of great importance to have stations in this healthy region, whither agents
oppressed by sickness might retire, and which would serve, moreover,
as part of a chain of communication between the interior and the coast.
The answer does not mean much more than what I know, by other means,
to be the case -- that a white man OF GOOD SENSE would be welcome and safe
in all these parts.  By uprightness, and laying himself out
for the good of the people, he would be known all over the country
as a BENEFACTOR of the race.  None desire Christian instruction,
for of it they have no idea.  But the people are now humbled
by the scourgings they have received, and seem to be in a favorable state
for the reception of the Gospel.  The gradual restoration of their former
prosperity in cattle, simultaneously with instruction,
would operate beneficially upon their minds.  The language is
a dialect of the other negro languages in the great valley;
and as many of the Batoka living under the Makololo understand
both it and the Sichuana, missionaries could soon acquire it
through that medium.

Monze had never been visited by any white man, but had seen
black native traders, who, he said, came for ivory, not for slaves.
He had heard of white men passing far to the east of him to Cazembe,
referring, no doubt, to Pereira, Lacerda, and others,
who have visited that chief.

The streams in this part are not perennial; I did not observe one
suitable for the purpose of irrigation.  There is but little wood;
here and there you see large single trees, or small clumps of evergreens,
but the abundance of maize and ground-nuts we met with shows
that more rain falls than in the Bechuana country, for there
they never attempt to raise maize except in damp hollows
on the banks of rivers.  The pasturage is very fine for both cattle and sheep.
My own men, who know the land thoroughly, declare that
it is all garden-ground together, and that the more tender grains,
which require richer soil than the native corn, need no care here.
It is seldom stony.

The men of a village came to our encampment, and, as they followed
the Bashukulompo mode of dressing their hair, we had an opportunity
of examining it for the first time.  A circle of hair at the top of the head,
eight inches or more in diameter, is woven into a cone
eight or ten inches high, with an obtuse apex, bent, in some cases,
a little forward, giving it somewhat the appearance of a helmet.
Some have only a cone, four or five inches in diameter at the base.
It is said that the hair of animals is added; but the sides of the cone
are woven something like basket-work.  The head man of this village,
instead of having his brought to a point, had it prolonged into a wand,
which extended a full yard from the crown of his head.
The hair on the forehead, above the ears, and behind, is all shaven off,
so they appear somewhat as if a cap of liberty were cocked upon
the top of the head.  After the weaving is performed it is said to be painful,
as the scalp is drawn tightly up; but they become used to it.
Monze informed me that all his people were formerly ornamented in this way,
but he discouraged it.  I wished him to discourage the practice
of knocking out the teeth too, but he smiled, as if in that case the fashion
would be too strong for him, as it was for Sebituane.

Monze came on Monday morning, and, on parting, presented us with
a piece of a buffalo which had been killed the day before by lions.
We crossed the rivulet Makoe, which runs westward into the Kafue,
and went northward in order to visit Semalembue, an influential chief there.
We slept at the village of Monze's sister, who also passes by the same name.
Both he and his sister are feminine in their appearance, but disfigured
by the foolish custom of knocking out the upper front teeth.

It is not often that jail-birds turn out well, but the first person
who appeared to welcome us at the village of Monze's sister was the prisoner
we had released in the way.  He came with a handsome present of corn and meal,
and, after praising our kindness to the villagers who had assembled around us,
asked them, "What do you stand gazing at?  Don't you know
that they have mouths like other people?"  He then set off
and brought large bundles of grass and wood for our comfort,
and a pot to cook our food in.

DECEMBER 12TH.  The morning presented the appearance of a continuous rain
from the north, the first time we had seen it set in from that quarter
in such a southern latitude.  In the Bechuana country, continuous rains
are always from the northeast or east, while in Londa and Angola
they are from the north.  At Pungo Andongo, for instance,
the whitewash is all removed from the north side of the houses.
It cleared up, however, about midday, and Monze's sister conducted us
a mile or two upon the road.  On parting, she said that she had
forwarded orders to a distant village to send food to the point where
we should sleep.  In expressing her joy at the prospect of living in peace,
she said it would be so pleasant "to sleep without dreaming of any one
pursuing them with a spear."

In our front we had ranges of hills called Chamai, covered with trees.
We crossed the rivulet Nakachinta, flowing westward into the Kafue,
and then passed over ridges of rocks of the same mica schist
which we found so abundant in Golungo Alto; here they were surmounted
by reddish porphyry and finely laminated felspathic grit with trap.
The dip, however, of these rocks is not toward the centre of the continent,
as in Angola, for ever since we passed the masses of granite on the Kalomo,
the rocks, chiefly of mica schist, dip away from them,
taking an easterly direction.  A decided change of dip occurs again
when we come near the Zambesi, as will be noticed farther on.  The hills
which flank that river now appeared on our right as a high dark range,
while those near the Kafue have the aspect of a low blue range,
with openings between.  We crossed two never-failing rivulets
also flowing into the Kafue.  The country is very fertile,
but vegetation is nowhere rank.  The boiling-point of water being 204 Deg.,
showed that we were not yet as low down as Linyanti; but we had left
the masuka-trees behind us, and many others with which we had become familiar.
A feature common to the forests of Angola and Benguela,
namely, the presence of orchilla-weed and lichens on the trees,
with mosses on the ground, began to appear; but we never,
on any part of the eastern slope, saw the abundant crops of ferns
which are met with every where in Angola.  The orchilla-weed and mosses, too,
were in but small quantities.

As we passed along, the people continued to supply us with food
in great abundance.  They had by some means or other got a knowledge
that I carried medicine, and, somewhat to the disgust of my men,
who wished to keep it all to themselves, brought their sick children for cure.
Some of them I found had hooping-cough, which is one of the few epidemics
that range through this country.

In passing through the woods I for the first time heard the bird called
Mokwa reza, or "Son-in-law of God" (Micropogon sulphuratus?), utter its cry,
which is supposed by the natives to be "pula, pula" (rain, rain).
It is said to do this only before heavy falls of rain.  It may be a cuckoo,
for it is said to throw out the eggs of the white-backed Senegal crow,
and lay its own instead.  This, combined with the cry for rain,
causes the bird to be regarded with favor.  The crow, on the other hand,
has a bad repute, and, when rain is withheld, its nest is sought for
and destroyed, in order to dissolve the charm by which it is supposed
to seal up the windows of heaven.  All the other birds now join in full chorus
in the mornings, and two of them, at least, have fine loud notes.
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David Livingstone; Missionary Travels

Chapter 27

David Livingstone;
Missionary Travels
