k
men--men of the water; their cattle are red; thine own tribe, Sebituane,
is perishing, and will be all consumed; thou wilt govern black men,
and, when thy warriors have captured red cattle, let not the owners be
killed; they are thy future tribe--they are thy city; let them be spared
to cause thee to build. And thou, Ramosinii, thy village will perish
utterly. If Mokari removes from that village he will perish first, and
thou, Ramosinii, wilt be the last to die." Concerning himself he added,
"The gods have caused other men to drink water, but to me they have
given bitter water of the chukuru (rhinoceros). They call me away
myself. I can not stay much longer."

This vaticination, which loses much in the translation, I have given
rather fully, as it shows an observant mind. The policy recommended was
wise, and the deaths of the "senoga" and of the two men he had named,
added to the destruction of their village, having all happened soon
after, it is not wonderful that Sebituane followed implicitly the
warning voice. The fire pointed to was evidently the Portuguese
fire-arms, of which he must have heard. The black men referred to were
the Barotse, or, as they term themselves, Baloiana; and Sebituane spared
their chiefs, even though they attacked him first. He had ascended the
Barotse valley, but was pursued by the Matebele, as Mosilikatse never
could forgive his former defeats. They came up the river in a very large
body. Sebituane placed some goats on one of the large islands of the
Zambesi as a bait to the warriors, and some men in canoes to co-operate
in the manoeuvre. When they were all ferried over to the island, the
canoes were removed, and the Matebele found themselves completely in a
trap, being perfectly unable to swim. They subsisted for some time on
the roots of grass after the goats were eaten, but gradually became so
emaciated that, when the Makololo landed, they had only to perform the
part of executioners on the adults, and to adopt the rest into their own
tribe. Afterward Mosilikatse was goaded on by his warriors to revenge
this loss; so he sent an immense army, carrying canoes with them, in
order that no such mishap might occur again. Sebituane had by this time
incorporated the Barotse, and taught his young men to manage canoes; so
he went from island to island, and watched the Matebele on the main land
so closely that they could not use their canoes to cross the river any
where without parting their forc