anoe had taken ivory up to the chief, to purchase
goods of some native traders from Benguela. Above the Falls the paddlers
always stand in the canoes, using long paddles, ten feet in length, and
changing from side to side without losing the stroke.

Mochokotsa, a messenger from Sekeletu, met us on the 17th, with another
request for the Doctor to take ivory and purchase a horse. He again
declined to interfere. None were to come up to Sekeletu but the Doctor;
and all the men who had had smallpox at Tette, three years ago, were to
go back to Moshobotwane, and he would sprinkle medicine over them, to
drive away the infection, and prevent it spreading in the tribe.
Mochokotsa was told to say to Sekeletu that the disease was known of old
to white men, and we even knew the medicine to prevent it; and, were
there any danger now, we should be the first to warn him of it. Why did
not he go himself to have Moshobotwane sprinkle medicine to drive away
his leprosy. We were not afraid of his disease, nor of the fever that
had killed the teachers and many Makololo at Linyanti. As this attempt
at quarantine was evidently the suggestion of native doctors to increase
their own importance, we added that we had no food, and would hunt next
day for game, and the day after; and, should we be still ordered
purification by their medicine, we should then return to our own country.

The message was not all of our dictation, our companions interlarded it
with their own indignant protests, and said some strong things in the
Tette dialect about these "doctor things" keeping them back from seeing
their father; when to their surprise Mochokotsa told them he knew every
word they were saying, as he was of the tribe Bazizulu, and defied them
to deceive him by any dialect, either of the Mashona on the east, or of
the Mambari on the west. Mochokotsa then repeated our message twice, to
be sure that he had it every word, and went back again. These chiefs'
messengers have most retentive memories; they carry messages of
considerable length great distances, and deliver them almost word for
word. Two or three usually go together, and when on the way the message
is rehearsed every night, in order that the exact words may be kept to.
One of the native objections to learning to write is, that these men
answer the purpose of transmitting intelligence to a distance as well as
a letter would; and, if a person wishes to communicate with any one in
the town, t