When I found myself once again sitting in my waggon at Panda ma Tenka, I occupied myself in writing my journal, but I was altogether much dispirited and out of sorts, the continued pain in my feet tending in no slight degree to aggravate my sense of depression. I was temporarily cheered by the companionship of my good dog Niger, who returned to me after having been left behind at the falls; but I felt very keenly the prospect of soon losing him altogether for a time; I was unwilling to expose him to the attacks of the tsetse-fly, and accordingly had arranged for my Bamangwato servant, Meriko, to take him back with him to Shoshong and confide him to the care of Mr. Mackenzie. Could I have foreseen that I was parting with the creature finally, I would not have suffered him to leave my side; I paid Meriko well to attend to him, and took care that he had a proper supply of provisions, but unfortunately it turned out that Mr. Mackenzie was away from home; poor Niger was entrusted to a waggon-driver in the employ of Messrs. Francis and Clark, who just then was starting for Grahamstown, and from that time forward, notwithstanding all my inquiries, I never could ascertain what became of him.

By this time I had come almost to the end of the stock of goods that I had procured for bartering; it was absolutely necessary that the supply should be replenished, and in spite of the exorbitant prices that were asked I had no alternative but to buy what calico, cloth, and beads I could.

On the 27th I had an attack of dysentery, which happily did not prove very serious.

During my stay I made the acquaintance of a man named Henry W., who came from the neighbourhood of Grahamstown; he was an experienced hunter, but somehow or other I could not take to him; I could not get over the barbarities which he permitted during his excursions. On one occasion, after wounding a female elephant that had been pursuing him, he allowed his servants to torture it for a couple of hours with their assegais before he put the poor brute out of its miseries by shooting it dead.

Although there had been no rain in the district for several months, the two days before we left Panda ma Tenka were wet and stormy. When we started we made but a very short progress on the first day, as my baggage proved too heavy for the cart, and I was obliged to halt and send back for a waggon; this did not arrive until the afternoon of the following day, but we lost no time in moving forwards again, and spent the night on the Gashuma Flat. Our encampment was an attraction to several lions that prowled around, ready to pounce upon any animal that might be scared from the enclosure.

Three out of my four servants spoke as many different dialects, Sesupia, Setonga, and Senansa, but they all understood the Sesuto-Serotse, so that from the chatter which they kept up I was able to pick up a number of colloquial expressions.

A short distance before we reached Saddler’s Pan, one of Westbeech’s servants had a narrow escape; having seen some zulu-hartebeests grazing a little way off, he approached them by degrees, and was about to fire when he found himself almost within the clutches of a lion that was watching the very same herd. He was glad enough to make a timely retreat.

Late in the evening of the 4th of October, all safe and sound we reached the Leshumo valley. Next morning I sent my servants forward to the Chobe, and as Westbeech had placed the eight donkeys at my disposal, they took the greater part of my baggage. I myself followed on later in the day, and on my way fell in with two English traders named Brown and Cross, who were pleased to see me; they were returning from a fruitless visit made in the hope of seeing Sepopo; they told me that they had been fortunate enough to kill two magnificent lions, one of them a full-grown male of the maneless species.

I found sixteen boatmen waiting my arrival at the Chobe, and next morning Sepopo sent six more; they were to take both Westbeech’s goods and mine to Sesheke, where the king was very anxious to inspect everything, having been already informed that Westbeech had brought a considerable number of elephant-guns. I should have been quite ready to cross the river that same morning, but the wind was too high for the passage to be attempted prudently; setting aside the prospect of being capsized, which would have been sufficiently unpleasant, there was the risk of falling a victim to the numerous crocodiles. I myself subsequently witnessed some casualties of this kind at Sesheke.

Strolling about, I observed that the poisonous mushungulu-tree was now in full bloom, covered with large crimson blossoms. On my way back from my ramble my attention was arrested by a succession of gun-shots, which I was told were part of a funeral ceremony that was then taking place. A Masupia was being buried, and on an open space between two trees, about 400 yards from the settlement, I saw a dozen or more men running about wildly and letting off their guns, shouting aloud during every interval between their shots: under one of the trees a number of people were sitting drinking beer, and under the other tree was the grave that had been just closed in.

The Masupias are accustomed to make their graves six or seven feet deep and two feet wide, and to bury with the deceased his coat, his mattock, and other weapons; a little corn is likewise thrown into the grave. The friends always spend the rest of the day at the place of interment, and if the buried man has been wealthy a large quantity of meat is consumed as well as the beer. The shouting and running about and the discharge of the guns are supposed to scare away the evil spirits from the spot. I asked one of the bystanders how the person just buried had come by his death; he only raised his eyes to signify that it was all owing to Molemo.

In the course of the day some of the people brought in a quantity of the flesh of a hippopotamus that they had killed; they considered it quite a young animal, but its teeth were full ten inches long.

In the conveyance of my baggage to Makumba’s landing-place I was assisted by a brother of the chief’s, named Ramusokotan; he resided some miles further up the left bank of the Chobe, and was entrusted with the duty of guarding the lower course of the river. On my way to the landing-place I saw several pallah-gazelles, being twice so close to them that I could observe all their movements.

The Zambesi was lower than I had seen it before. As we crossed it we had a narrow escape of being upset by a hippopotamus, another of the three animals of which Blockley had killed the largest on our previous voyage to Sesheke. Remembering the spot, we were trying to pass along as quietly as possible, when Westbeech’s boatmen felt a sudden jerk at one of the paddles close under their canoe; the creature was probably startled for the instant, and allowed the boat to proceed without attacking it; the next moment, however, it made a furious dash towards my boat, which was following close behind. But my men had fortunately been put on their guard by the cries of Westbeech’s crew, and made so vigorous a spurt that when the head of the hippopotamus emerged from the water, it was several yards in the rear.

On arriving at Sesheke I was informed that I was at liberty, if I liked, to occupy one of the new huts just erected by the king, but I preferred accepting Westbeech’s invitation to take up my quarters in his own courtyard, where Blockley also had put up a small warehouse for himself. My first greeting from the king was that I had been too long coming, that I was too late now, and that he could not keep his Marutse men waiting for me; but I went to see him in the afternoon, and took him a variety of little presents, which seemed to put him in a very much better temper, and he was evidently pleased when I tried to speak a few sentences to him in the Sesuto-Serotse language.

It was getting towards evening when Blockley called me out of my hut to witness a curious scene. The king was receiving a visit from his wives who resided in the Barotse valley, and from his daughter Moquai, the Mabunda queen; they were arriving with about forty canoes, those occupied by the royal ladies being covered in the middle by a mat to protect them from the sun and rain. Many of the canoes had thirteen oarsmen, who all rowed standing, such of them as did not convey passengers being laden not only with great mats, pots, and provisions for the way, but with baskets full of presents for the king.

I called the next morning upon Captain M’Leod, Captain Fairly, and Cowley, whom the king had accommodated in a round hut near the royal enclosure; they were full of complaints because Sepopo persisted in putting off the great elephant-hunt for which they had come the second time. I also went with Westbeech to pay my respects to the newly-arrived queens, most of whom he had already seen in the Barotse valley. Amongst them was the chief wife, Mokena, or “mother of the country.” Altogether I made acquaintance with sixteen of the wives. Sepopo’s favourite was a Makololo named Lunga. The third wife was Marishwati, the mother of Kaika, already nominated as the future heiress to the throne. The fourth wife was named Makaloe; the fifth, Uesi; the sixth, Liapaleng; then came Makkapelo, on whose account two men were put to death in 1874; next in order were Mantaralucha, Manatwa, Sybamba, and Kacindo. The twelfth was called Molechy; this wife, as well as another named Sitan, had been all but drowned by Sepopo for faithlessness.

A seducer of any of the royal wives is at once handed over to the executioner’s assistants, with the instruction that he is “to be sent to fetch buffalo-meat for the king,” meaning that he is to be taken to the woods, and there assegaied. The mode of dealing with an adulterous wife may be illustrated by Sepopo’s proceedings with Sitan. He ordered a number of canoes full of people to push off into the middle of the stream, taking his place in one of them with the culprit. He then had her bound hand and foot, and ducked under the water repeatedly until she became insensible; on her recovering consciousness, he asked her to tell the people how she liked being drowned, and warned her that if ever her offence should be repeated, he should simply put her under water, and leave her there.

The fourteenth wife was Silala, and there were two others, but both of these had been presented by the king to two of his chiefs. The true heir to the throne had died two years previously. His name was Maritella, and he was the son of Marishwati. Just before his death he was lying on his bed, and complained of being thirsty, whereupon the Barotse chieftain, who happened to be present, poured him out some drink from a pitcher standing by; the lad died very soon afterwards, and Sepopo immediately accused the chieftain of having poisoned him, and condemned him, in spite of his being universally beloved by his people, to be poisoned himself.

The king’s daughter, Moquai, had married Manengo, one of the few Makololos who had survived the general massacre. The king of the Makololos, Sepopo informed me, had died a miserable death, his body having become a mass of ulcers, and after his demise the whole tribe had been distracted by party squabbles.

I was determined to give the king no peace on the subject of my journey, and on the 12th I had a long conference with him and the Portuguese. He told me that although I might make up my mind to stay only two days at each of the towns in the Barotse, the whole boat-journey through his kingdom could not take me less than two months, and that after I had reached the kingdom of the Iwan-yoe, where I should find the sources of the Zambesi, I should have to go on for about another nine weeks to get to Matimbundu.

I went more than once to visit the queens, and always found that they were treated with great respect, their quarters being nearly always surrounded by residents patiently waiting their turn to be admitted to an audience.

On the 14th I received a visit from a dancer. The calves of his legs were covered with bells made of fruit-shells, and his dancing consisted of little more than shaking himself so that the bells were all set in motion.

Amongst the other inmates of Sepopo’s court was a Mambari named Kolintshintshi, who held the office of royal tailor; he had been taken prisoner during one of the raids of the Marutse to the west; two companions who had been captured at the same time had been restored to their home after receiving a liberal present of cattle, whilst Kolintshintshi had been detained.

During the time that I was delayed at Sesheke I took several opportunities of rambling into the surrounding woods, and found a number of trees and bushes that were quite new to me, whilst a great proportion of the kinds that I had already seen in the Bechuana forests appeared here to attain double the height that they did elsewhere. Four-footed game was very plentiful, and I noticed a hartebeest with flat compressed horns, different from any kind with which I was acquainted. Birds, likewise, seemed tolerably numerous, and I found a singular kind of bee-eater (Merops Nubicus), a grey medium-sized hornbill, the great plotus, and two species of spurred plovers with yellow wattles.

Returning from a walk I came across one of the caravans that arrive from the more distant parts of the kingdom, bringing in the periodical tribute for the king. It consisted of about thirty people, but very often a caravan of this kind will include considerably more, because whether the men come voluntarily, or under the compulsion of a chief, they are always obliged to bring their whole households with them. On making their entry into Sesheke the party was arranged mainly with regard to the stature of the people who composed it; a leader went in front, carrying nothing but his weapons and a great bell, which he continued ringing without intermission; following him were the men laden with the elephants’ tusks, the manza-roots, and the baskets of fruit that composed the tribute; then came the women in charge of the travelling-apparatus and provisions, the children all trudging on behind.

On the 19th Westbeech, Bauren, Walsh, and myself made up a party to go and fish in one of the lagoons. We arranged to go two and two in separate boats, but we were so unlucky in our choice that we soon found that we were in perpetual danger of losing our equilibrium, and had to return and exchange into craft of safer dimensions. We had an opportunity during our excursion to observe the way in which the Marutse and Masupias manipulate their nets. Made of bast, with meshes that are somewhat wide, each net is cast out with its ends secured to two boats, which are stationed at a distance from each other, and manned by four oarsmen apiece; when the net is sunk the two boats are made to approach each other at the same point upon the shore where the net is drawn up; the fish are stupified by being knocked with kiris, and then brought to land.

We were witnesses on our way back of a scene that was anything but pleasing. Some girls had been bathing in a creek, and one of them had stolen some beads belonging to another. On discovering that she had been robbed, the owner of the beads fell upon the unfortunate thief, and belaboured her so savagely with the reeds that she tore from the stream, that the culprit fell down and sued for mercy. A man who was standing near attempted to interfere, but nothing could pacify the anger of the infuriated girl; she persisted in administering chastisement, and was not deterred from her violence till she had actually snatched off the leather apron from the victim’s loins.

The same evening I was again invited to supper with the king. On this occasion an episode took place which unfortunately was by no means rare in Sepopo’s court, and which serves to illustrate his habitual cruelty. It was about an hour after sundown, and there was no lack of merriment in the royal enclosure. The king was sitting in his usual fashion—crossed-legged upon a mat. The wives whose turn it was to entertain him were on his right. On his left was spread another mat for myself, his nephew, and his immediate attendants. The rest of the company were arranged opposite to him, in a semicircle. The intervening space was left free for Matungulu, the royal cup-bearer, to dispense the honey-beer, a beverage peculiarly belonging to the court; all honey, as crown property, being sent to the royal kitchen. Men, moreover, are sent out to collect it by the aid of the honey-cuckoo, their expeditions frequently lasting several days. The king took a little draught of the beer, and handed the remainder to Lunga, his favourite wife, with a remark universally supposed to be so witty, that the whole assemblage, according to etiquette, burst into roars of laughter. Meanwhile one of the inferior chiefs took advantage of the noise to approach the king; and, clapping his hands gently without cessation as he spoke, said: “There was a man in my village, my lord king, too weak in his legs to hunt polocholo (game). It has pleased Nyamba (the great god) that all his wives should die; so that he can no longer procure any mabele (corn). This man has now come to settle here with you in Sesheke; but he is old, very old, and his relations are far away in the Barotse.” Sepopo nodded to signify that he quite understood the story. While he had been listening, his eye had again and again glanced towards a distant quarter, where the general crowd were gathered; and when the chief ceased to speak, the king cried out “Mashoku!” In an instant the executioner hastened towards him and received his commission to take care that the old man should no longer be permitted to be a burden to the neighbourhood.

Throughout the kingdom no one was more feared or more hated than the executioner Mashoku. He was a Mabunda; but the peculiar aptitude he had shown for his office had induced the king to raise him to the rank of a chieftain. He was over six feet high, and of a massive build; so ill-shaped, however, was his head, and so repulsive his cast of countenance, that I could never do otherwise than associate him in my mind with a hyæna.

Nothing could be more odious than the way in which Mashoku received his orders. Crawling up on all fours to the royal presence, he grinned with satisfaction at the instructions he received. He kept clapping his hands softly while he was attending; and having taken a sip from the goblet offered him by his royal master, he crawled back to his former place. The king was in high good humour; and after a few more jokes, retired to his bedchamber, whilst the band played their usual serenade from their adjacent hut.

Only too faithfully was the king’s sentence carried out next morning. Before it was light, five men wended their way towards the old man’s hut, one of whom, Mashoku himself, went in and seized his victim by the leg. Quite incapable of making any resistance, the poor man trembled like a leaf. He was dragged off to the river-side, and there thrust into a canoe that was lying in readiness. A few strokes of the paddle brought it into midstream; and while three of the assistant executioners kept it steady, Mashoku and the other man lifted the helpless creature by the shoulders and legs, and held him in the water. A gurgling noise, a few bubbles on the surface of the stream, and all was over. The body was hauled back into the boat, to be thrown into the water again at a spot near the bank where the king’s scavengers always flung their refuse to the crocodiles.

Such is an example of the summary way in which Sepopo would dispose of the friendless and infirm; and as the number of strangers that gathered round the king at Sesheke was considerable, executions of this kind were more frequent than in many other places. Under certain rulers—such for instance as Sepopo’s grandfather, who was much respected by the people—these cruelties fall into disuse, nor are they often practised when a queen holds the reins of government.

Next day I paid a visit to Masangu, to whom, as being responsible for the control of the guns distributed to the king’s vassals, I have already given the designation of governor of the arsenal. He was likewise superintendent of all the native smiths. I found him employed in repairing a gun, for which he was using hammers, chisels, pincers, and bellows, all of his own making, and of the most perfect construction that I had yet seen in South Africa.

He asked me whether I had ever seen the Masupias dance, and drew my attention to the sound of the drums in the royal courtyard. On hearing that I had never been present when any dancing was going forward, he invited me to go with him to the performance that was then about to commence.

All the inhabitants of the Marutse kingdom are fond of dancing, most of the tribes appearing to adopt a style peculiar to themselves. In common with the Bechuanas they have a dance which is performed by girls on reaching the age of maturity. This is repeated day after day for weeks at a time, and, accompanied by singing and castanet playing, is sometimes kept up till midnight, and is supposed to answer the design of uniting the girls of the same age and born in the same neighbourhood in a bond of friendship. There are also betrothal dances and elephant dances, at which a great quantity of butshuala is consumed, the ill-effects of which soon become apparent. On these occasions the instruments of fan-palm are beaten very rapidly with reeds, the time being marked by striking gloves of steel, or bells without clappers. Besides these, again, there are the lion and leopard dances, which are performed by hunters returning from successful expeditions, in conjunction with the villagers, who go out to meet them. In an elephant dance the king himself occasionally takes a part, as likewise in the mokoro, or boat dance.

That to which Masangu now invited me to accompany him was known as “the prophetic dance.” It was one of several juggleries peculiar to the Masupia tribe. The largest drums of the royal band are brought out, and while they are beaten about thirty performers stand round, singing and clapping their hands with all their might. Two men then commence dancing in the middle of the open space, and continue their performances for hours together, sometimes from sunrise to sunset, till they sink down almost in a state of exhaustion. In this condition they have to deliver their prophecies about any royal hunt or raid that may be coming off. As a general rule these predictions are favourable, and the dancers are rewarded with presents of beads or calico; but if the event should belie the anticipation, they take good care to keep themselves out of the way, to escape the chastisement that would be sure to fall to their lot.

The two Masupia dancers that I saw had their heads, arms, and loins fantastically adorned with the tails of gnus and zebras. The dance itself seemed to consist principally in hopping from one foot to another, varied by the performers occasionally laying themselves flat on the ground, at one time falling suddenly, at another sinking so gradually that no joint appeared to stir, although the head was kept in a perpetual agitation. Attached to the calves of the legs were little bells and a number of gourd-shells, which acted as rattles; and when the dance is executed in their own homes, the Masupias very often introduce some conjuring tricks, one of which consists in giving a tremendous gash to the tongue, from which flows a stream of blood: but the tongue is immediately afterwards exhibited, and shown to have sustained no injury.

After having devoted some days to a general examination of the fish in the Zambesi, I took an opportunity to make a more precise investigation of several varieties, applying my attention particularly to the sheat-fish (Glanis siluris), which, however, I could not discover differed in any respect from the same species in the more southern rivers, except that it was of a somewhat darker colour. We set some ground-lines in places that appeared to be free from crocodiles, and were successful in getting a very fair haul.

A loud clamour of women’s voices that broke the silence of the night was explained to me to betoken that a Marutse had just died in the village of Katan, a chief on the west. This was followed in the morning by the discharge of guns, indicating that the deceased was being buried.

In the course of that day the king sent a boat to convey Blockley and Bauren to Impalera, to enable them to start on their trading-expedition to the territory of the Makololo prince Wankie. The offer, however, of a single boat to carry a white man, several servants, and all the merchandise, was regarded by Blockley as little less than an insult, and did not tend to heal the unpleasantness which Sepopo’s recent want of courtesy and consideration had provoked. He was not long in visiting our quarters again, coming not only with his full band, but attended by a company of 120 servants, that completely filled our courtyard, his design evidently being to make us sensible how thoroughly we were in his power.

Sepopo had hardly taken his departure, and I had seated myself to finish some sketches that I had begun, when twelve of his queens pushed into my hut. They had heard that I had taken the likenesses of the king and his executioner, and were not only very curious to see them, but anxious to learn how they were done. In their eagerness to handle everything, I almost thought they would squeeze the breath out of my body; one of them took hold of my pencil, several of them felt the surface of my paper, whilst those behind, who could not see, pushed those in front, till their breasts pressed against my shoulders. Certainly they were more obtrusive in their behaviour than any of the Bechuana or Zulu women that I had elsewhere seen. When the royal ladies entered, one of our black servants, who was in the hut, prepared to leave, but knowing the jealous disposition of the king, I thought it advisable to make him remain where he was.

My guests remained with me for about half an hour, when they betook themselves to the small warehouse next door, and began to pester Westbeech very much as they had pestered me. As soon as they had gone, I hung a mat over my doorway, leaving only aperture enough to admit a little light, but the expedient was an utter failure; I had taken much too moderate an estimate of woman’s curiosity. Almost immediately afterwards one voice was heard, “Sikurumela mo’ ndu” (a curtain is hung up), followed by another, “Nyaka chajo” (doctor gone out), and two of the queens were inside, much disconcerted, no doubt, at finding the doctor at home.

Altogether, I consider the Marutse to be the cleanest of all the South African tribes that I came across. Although there are but few shallow sandy spots in the river near the larger settlements, and even these are dangerous on account of the crocodiles, the people will not allow themselves to be deprived of their bath; if the stream is deep or the bank precipitous, they pour the water over their heads. Washing is to them an absolute necessity, and they rinse their mouths and clean their hands after every meal.

I made an excursion on the 23rd to the plain known as Blockley’s kraal, and there saw some puku, letshwe, and water-antelopes. The plain lies under water during the floods; but at its edge, close to the woods, I noticed a number of fields under cultivation; women and children were digging, and men were felling trees, the clearance they made being an enlargement of their master’s estate. On my way back I saw several homesteads already finished, and close beside them some rude, conical huts of grass and reeds, so slightly put together that they could have taken only a few hours to construct. They were intended for the female slaves, and were not allowed to have any enclosure, so that the ingress and egress of their occupants might be under supervision.

Going into a hut next day I found a Mambari doing blacksmiths’ work with some tools that Masangu had lent him; he was sharpening mattocks, and kept his fire alive by means of a pair of the bellows that are in ordinary use among the Marutse. These bellows were somewhat peculiar, and may claim a detailed description. They had two compartments, formed of circular boards covered with leather, and with an aperture in the sides; these were alternately raised and lowered by handles, the air being forced into two wooden tubes that ran parallel to each other into the two compartments; fixed into the ends of the wooden tubes were two shorter tubes made of antelopes’ horns, but these, instead of running parallel, converged in front, and met in a clay nozzle, which was applied to the fire.

I was taking an afternoon stroll along the river-side, when I saw a crowd of natives manifestly in great excitement; it appeared that the body of a girl, who had been killed by a crocodile a few days before, had just been washed ashore. Crocodiles have the habit of drowning human beings, or any animals that they are unable to swallow, by holding them down at the bottom of the water until the cessation of all struggling seems to make them aware that no resistance is to be expected, when they open their jaws and let free their prey. Unless one crocodile is assisted by another, it cannot by itself tear a fresh corpse in pieces; but it has to wait until the process of decomposition sets in, when the gaseous exhalations raise it to the surface in a condition that permits it to be torn asunder and devoured piecemeal. If a crocodile’s attention should be attracted by a fish, or anything else that seems fit for food, it will forsake its larger prey in the day-time, but only to return to it in the evening. I was told by Sepopo and by many of his people, that these reptiles are more dangerous near Sesheke than in most other parts of the kingdom. Shortly before my arrival a man had been dragged by one of them from his boat, and a boy of six years of age had been snapped up while bathing; and during my stay I heard of no less than thirty deaths that were attributed to the rapacity of these creatures.

Small crocodiles are occasionally caught by accident in the fishing-nets; the larger ones have to be captured by an arrangement of great hooks. The crocodile-tackle is very ingenious, and probably may be more easily understood from an illustration than from any verbal description. The bait which conceals the hook is covered by a net, which is attached to a strong bast rope more than twelve feet long by a number of twisted bast threads, the other end of the rope being wound round a bundle of reeds that serves as a float. It is only now and then when the casualties have been unusually numerous that the king gives orders for the tackle to be brought into use, and then the bundle of reeds is laid upon the bank; the hook is generally baited with a piece of putrified dog’s flesh, of which the Marutse believe the crocodile to be especially fond, and is supported on a tripod of reeds, three or four feet above the water, and almost close to its edge. After a crocodile has scented the bait, it usually hovers round it for a long time, sometimes until late in the evening, before it makes a snap at it; but when it attempts to swallow it, the projecting points of the hook prevent the closing of the jaws, and the water rushing into the throat and windpipe makes the brute sink to the bottom, where it soon becomes exhausted; its carcase floats down the stream, either towards the shore or against a sandbank, its position being indicated by the float which it drags after it. Two or three crocodiles have been repeatedly known to be taken in this way during a single night from the setting of five hooks. Except they are found alive on the hook, or are accidentally wounded by fishermen or hunters, they are never speared. Crocodile-snares, like fishing-nets, are all royal property.

On one occasion, when the hooks had been baited overnight, I went down to the river to ascertain the result, and met three large canoes with two men apiece, each of them conveying the carcase of a crocodile big enough to contain a human body. As soon as the carcases were brought to shore, some of Sepopo’s people proceeded to cut off their heads; the eyelids, the coverings of the nostrils, and a few of the scales from the ridge of the back were reserved for the king, to be used as charms.

I did what I could to induce the crowd that had found the body of the poor girl to have it buried, but my pleading was to no purpose; her relatives declared that it was Nyambe’s will that the crocodile should seize her, and therefore the crocodile must be allowed to have her. The body was accordingly left to be devoured at sunset.

Queen Lunga took an opportunity of calling upon me, to introduce her daughter Nyama. She was a girl of fourteen, and had just been married to Sepopo’s eldest son, Monalula, who was half an idiot. Before the wedding she had been sent to reside with her mother and some other of the royal wives in a retired hut in a neighbouring wood, where she was made to fast, and to spend her time in working and in learning her domestic duties; her hair meanwhile had been all shaved off, except an oval patch that was rubbed with manganese. Nyama’s father was Sekeletu, the Makololo prince.

In one of my next rambles through the woods, I came upon a little Mankoë settlement. The people were perhaps the finest men in the Marutse empire. They had long, woolly hair, which they combed up high, giving their heads the effect of being larger than they really were. Their purpose in coming to Sesheke was to assist the king in his projected great hunting-excursion. I noticed that their travelling-utensils of horn and wood were ornamented with carvings scarcely inferior in execution to those of the Mabundas. The four huts in which they were residing were about seven feet in height, and the same in width, and were arranged in the shape of a horseshoe. On my way back I saw several graves of Masupia chieftains, all adorned with ivory; I likewise noticed some calabashes, with sticks thrust right through them, resting mouth downwards on a small ant-hill, and filled with pulverized bone. They were supposed by the Marutse to bring rain.

From a conversation with Sepopo I gathered some information about the constitution of the country and the ranks of the officials. The hierarchy may be divided into four classes; first, the officers of state; secondly, the koshi or viceroys of the tribes in the different provinces; thirdly, the kosanas or makosanas, sub-chieftains who serve under the koshi; and lastly, the personal attendants of the king, whose rank may be said to be intermediate between the two latter classes.

The officers of state were, first, the commander-in-chief, who in Sepopo’s time was a Marutse relation of his named Kapella, and whom he afterwards condemned to death; secondly, there was the controller of the arsenal, having, as I have explained, the supervision of the ammunition and guns distributed to the vassals, an office that under Sepopo was shared by two Masupias, Masango and Ramakocan; next there was the captain of the body-guard, a post then held by Sepopo’s cousin, Monalula, but whose services were only required in time of war; and fourthly, the captain of the younger warriors, who had the command of a special division of the army during a campaign; this office was at present held by a man named Sibendi.

The second class of officials includes all the governors of the more important provinces. They are invested with both civil and military powers. In some of the more extensive districts, as the Barotse, there are several of these chiefs appointed, but they are all subordinate to the one who is chosen to reside at the principal town, and in all cases they are accountable to the head governor of the Barotse, who is regarded as ranking next to the king. In Sepopo’s time this office was filled by Inkambella.

Officials of the third grade were such as held control as deputy-viceroys over separate towns or small villages where cattle-breeding, hunting, or fishing, was carried on in behalf of the king. Their principal duty was to look to the proper payment of the royal tribute; the contribution of cereal products was ordinarily sent to the koshi, who were responsible for forwarding it to the sovereign. It is the law of the land that when a vassal kills a head of game, and even when a freeman slaughters any of his own cattle, the breast must be given to the kosana, or must be sent to the koshi if he should happen to be in the neighbourhood, or must be reserved for the king himself when the royal residence is within reach. The law likewise demands that all matters of importance should be submitted at once to the deputies, who refer them to their superiors to transmit, if need be, to the king himself.

Dignitaries of what I have called the fourth class comprise what may be designated as the king’s privy-council. Nominally they are reputed to rank below the koshi, but practically the monarch holds them as their superiors; they include the state executioner, five or six private physicians, the royal cup-bearer, one or two detectives, the superintendent of the fishermen, and the overseer of the canoes. There was likewise a kind of council belonging to Moquai. Although the king had virtually withdrawn the sovereignty from his daughter, the Mabunda people persisted in regarding her as their proper ruler, and she was allowed to retain her court-retinue, of whom her husband, Manengo, was the head; she had moreover a chancellor and a captain of the guard, both of whom were appointed viceroys in her dominions. I myself made the acquaintance of Sambe, her premier, as well as of several of her chiefs, Nubiana a Marutse, Moquele, Mokoro, and two Masupias, Monamori and Simalumba.

Sepopo had both a privy-council and a general council. Under a queen a privy-council has no existence at all, and in Sepopo’s hands it was entirely his tool, composed of men as cruel as himself. Nor in his time was the general council itself, made up mainly of state officials, much better than a farce; whatever decisions it might arrive at, and whatever sentences it might pass, were completely overruled in the other chamber. Besides the state officials the larger council always included any chiefs or subordinate governors who might be resident near the royal quarters.

Although Sepopo had several times changed his residence he had hitherto generally succeeded in getting a council fairly amenable to his authority; recently, however, his barbarities, and especially the wholesale way in which he was putting people to death upon the slightest pretext, had brought about a spirit of dissatisfaction. Conscious of the growing opposition, the king proceeded to yet greater severity in his dealings, and condemned a number of the leading counsellors, both of the Marutse and Barotse kingdoms, to be executed, an arbitrary measure which only served to hasten his downfall.

By the tribes of the Marutse kingdom in general the larger council was held in high esteem, the privy-council being regarded only with detestation and servile fear.

In Sepopo’s employment there were likewise two old wizen-looking magicians or doctors, Liva and his brother, who exercised almost a supreme control over state affairs. They had practised their craft for more than sixty years; they had served under previous sovereigns, and their experience enabled them now to minister to Sepopo’s suspicions, to manage his temper, and to foster his superstitions. They enjoyed a kind of hereditary reputation, as in spite of the atrocities which they were known to have encouraged, they were regarded by the various tribes with awe rather than with hatred. That there had not been a revolt long ago against Sepopo’s tyranny was mainly to be attributed to the belief that he had those in his secret council who could divine any plot beforehand and frustrate any stratagem that could be devised, and even when his despotism grew so great that the life of the highest in the kingdom was not secure for a day, not a man could be found to lift an assegai against him. At last it happened that a certain charm which he had publicly exhibited and proclaimed to be infallible failed to produce its proper effect; scales as it were fell from the eyes of the populace; they discerned that all his pretensions were hypocrisy and deceit, and proceeded forthwith to expel him from the throne.

The elephant-hunt, so long talked of, came off on the 27th. At dawn of day all Sesheke was in commotion; the royal courtyard, where the king was distributing powder and shot, was so full of men equipped for the excursion that I could only with difficulty make my way across. I hurried to tell my English friends the news, but I found that they had already been apprised of the hunt by one of the chiefs, and that although they had not been invited by the king, they were preparing to join the throng. The excitement between the royal enclosure and the river was very great; as the people ran backwards and forwards they shouted and laughed, and I had never seen them in such high spirits and so generally blithe and genial. A hunt on this extensive scale was very rare; the present occasion had been anticipated for months, and it had a special interest of its own from the circumstance that some white men and the king himself were to take part in the sport. Long rows of canoes lined the river bank, another flotilla having collected on the opposite side, the crews on the sand ready to embark at a moment’s notice. Hurrying on their way to the Kashteja to await the arrival of canoes to take them across were caravans of men, chiefly Mankoë, Mabundas, and Western Makalakas; every chief made his own people arrange themselves in proper order, and despatched the proper contingent to look after the embarkation of the clothes and water-vessels, and especially to look to the guns, which necessarily engrossed a good deal of attention.

As the king was leaving his residence he was confronted by the party of Englishmen, who remonstrated with him very severely because he had failed to keep his promise of inviting them to the hunt. His behaviour towards them had really been abominable. After endeavouring to fall in with his wishes in every way, and having twice come from Panda ma Tenka on purpose, and, moreover, having submitted to be fleeced by him till they had little more than the clothes on their backs, they now found that he was about to start without them. This could not be. No doubt Sepopo had his own motives for his conduct; he was accustomed to consider all elephants as his own property, whether shot by himself or not, and probably he was anxious to conceal what numbers of elephants there were in the country, lest the visits of white men should become too frequent; but he was bound to keep his word, and at length, in deference to the representations of some of the chiefs who were in attendance, he consented that the three sportsmen, as well as a trader named Dorehill, who had paid him a visit the year before, should have a canoe placed at their disposal.

It was about noon when the king and his flotilla started off. He was accompanied by his band, and at least two hundred canoes set out from Sesheke alone, apart from those that joined at other parts of the river. It was with no little reluctance that I refrained from going, but I considered it prudent to do nothing to arouse Sepopo’s suspicions, and feared that by taking part in the hunt I might lead him to suppose that my proposed expedition in his country had some design of interfering with the elephants.

My general rule at this time was to spend my evenings with Westbeech, where with his assistance I tried to converse with the natives, and gathered many particulars about their manners and customs. In his hut I met a Marutse named Uana ea Nyambe, i. e. the child of God, who prided himself very much upon his wisdom, and was often consulted by Sepopo.

On the 29th I stayed at home to keep guard while Westbeech and his servant went out hunting; they were more fortunate than I had been on my last excursion, and returned with a letshwebock that had no less than ten bullets in its body. I believe that the muscles of the neck are more strongly developed in this species of antelope than in any other.

The next day we received a visit from several Marutse who had their foreheads and chests tied up with bandages of snake-skin, to keep off pain, as they explained; they told us that they not unfrequently fastened the bandages round their waists to allay the pangs of hunger; the Makololos use leather straps, and the Matabele strips of calico for the same purpose.

Two boatmen came in a little before sunset to fetch some provisions for the white men on the hunting-ground; they reported that hitherto the chase had been somewhat unsuccessful, but that it was to be resumed in the morning. But about another hour later we were much surprised to see Cowley and Dorehill turn up; they were disappointed, and consequently angry; they told us that they had been stationed in a reed-thicket with the king and the principal members of his suite, and had been waiting for the elephants to be driven up; Sepopo, however, grew so impatient that he fired while the herd was more than sixty yards distant; the consequence was that they immediately took to flight; there were nearly 800 huntsmen following the king, and almost as many beaters, and when the elephants began to run, a sort of panic seized everybody, guns were fired in every direction, often without an aim at all, and in the general pell-mell it was no great wonder that only five elephants should be killed altogether. Cowley and Dorehill affirmed that they had been obliged to throw themselves on the ground to escape the random volley of shot; and they declared, moreover, that the beaters had utterly failed in their work, which would have been done far more effectually by a couple of Masarwas than by the whole host of them. The king had given vent to his anger at the bungling in his usual fashion by thrashing every one within reach with a heavy stick till his arm ached. Before starting, he had been smeared with a variety of ointments which he called a “molemo” to give him influence over the elephants.

Wishing to make rather a longer excursion into the Sesheke woods than I had previously done, I started off before sunrise, and having passed the site of Old Sesheke, turned to the west. On my left lay the Zambesi valley, an apparently boundless plain overgrown with trees and clumps of reeds, and intersected in various places by side-arms of the river, some of them several miles in length. The woods to which I was bending my way were about twenty feet above the level of the water. Some of the lagoons extended right up to the trees, stretching along the edge of the forest for miles, though the river itself was at an average distance of three miles away. Near one of the lagoons I saw a couple of darters, and very singular their appearance was as they perched upon a bare projecting bough, their stumpy bodies and short legs being quite out of proportion to their long, thin necks, that never rested from their snake-like contortions; but a still stranger sight it is to see them swim, the whole of the body being immersed and nothing but the upper part of the neck with the head and sharp beak visible above the water. Until arriving at the Zambesi, I had not seen the darter (Plotus congensis) since I left the eastern parts of Cape Colony. In a way that is scarcely credible without being witnessed, their long, narrow throats are capable of swallowing fish as large as a man’s hand. I shot several, but they all fell into the water, and as the lagoons abounded with crocodiles, it was not without risk that I and my four servants contrived to fish them out again. Shortly afterwards I shot a Francolinus nudicollis.

Noticing some buffalo tracks that apparently led down to the river I determined to follow them, and found that they soon turned back to the woods, past a native village. We continued our way about three miles beyond this, when we observed how the grass alongside the tracks had been quite recently eaten away, and drew an inference that the buffaloes were not likely to be far distant, and that we ought to be on our guard; the trees around us were not of any great height, but the underwood was dense, and the bushes round the glades were rather thick, so that our progress was not at all easy.

We kept on our way, however, and at length came to a spot where the tracks were so unmistakably new, that it was certain the buffaloes must be close at hand. We moved forwards with increased caution, keeping only a few yards apart.

“Narri! narri!” (buffalo! buffalo!) suddenly whispered Chukuru, and beckoned to us to halt.

“Kia hassibone narri,” (I see no buffalo), I answered, and kept on.

But Chukuru touched me on my shoulder as a sign that I should crouch down; the others took the hint and concealed themselves instantly in the grass.

“Okay?” (where) I asked.

He pointed to four dark objects lying on the ground about 120 yards distant. There could be no mistake. They were four buffaloes. One of them had its head towards me. I took aim and fired; up jumped every one to see the effect. Up sprang the buffaloes, and made off in a gallop. One of them however lagged behind; it rolled over for a moment, but sprang up quickly and overtook the rest; then again it seemed to linger. We had no doubt that it had been wounded, but whether mortally or not we could not tell.

Nothing can exceed the cunning that a buffalo will exhibit when it is wounded or infuriated. Having better powers of discrimination, it is more wary than a hippopotamus, and consequently is not so dangerous to an unarmed man, but once provoked it will fight to the bitter end. It generally makes a little retreat, and conceals itself behind a bush, where it waits for the hunter, and when he comes up makes a dash at him. Attacks of this kind are by no means unfrequent, and huntsmen of considerable experience have been known to be outwitted and seriously injured by these South African buffaloes. Sometimes the angry brute will content itself with tossing its victim into the air, in which case the mischief is generally limited to the dislocation or fracture of a limb, but far more often it holds its antagonist down upon the ground, whilst with its feet it tramples him to death. I heard of an instance on the Limpopo, where a white man and three negroes were killed, and a fourth negro much injured, all by a single buffalo bull.

The buffaloes of which we were in pursuit came to a standstill after about 200 yards; the leader of them turned, and seemed to be scenting us out; then again they started off, but after a very short run the one that was wounded fell behind and appeared anxious to conceal itself under the shelter of a tree. I made my servants approach and attract its attention, while I crept up unobserved till I was within proper range, when I immediately discharged both my barrels. The first shot entered the breast, the second hit the shoulder; and tottering forwards on to the open ground, the animal almost directly fell upon its knees. With shouts of glee my servants ran up to the spot, but on discovering that the buffalo was not dead, they were careful not to go too near, nor would I allow them to touch it until I had contrived to get sufficiently close to send a bullet behind its ear, when it fell back powerless, and its limbs were stiffened in death. The delight of my negroes was unbounded; they danced round the carcase for a few minutes, and then set to work to light a fire, at which they roasted the best part of the heart, and cutting off one of the feet toasted the marrow.