to the dialect spoken, and all possess a
similar signification, and express the native idea of this magnificent
stream being the main drain of the country.

In order to assist in the support of our large party, and at the same
time to see the adjacent country, I went several times, during our stay,
to the north of the village for game. The country is covered with clumps
of beautiful trees, among which fine open glades stretch away in every
direction; when the river is in flood these are inundated, but the
tree-covered elevated spots are much more numerous here than in the
country between the Chobe and the Leeambye. The soil is dark loam, as it
is every where on spots reached by the inundation, while among the trees
it is sandy, and not covered so densely with grass as elsewhere. A sandy
ridge covered with trees, running parallel to, and about eight miles
from the river, is the limit of the inundation on the north; there are
large tracts of this sandy forest in that direction, till you come to
other districts of alluvial soil and fewer trees. The latter soil is
always found in the vicinity of rivers which either now overflow their
banks annually, or formerly did so. The people enjoy rain in sufficient
quantity to raise very large supplies of grain and ground-nuts.

This district contains great numbers of a small antelope named Tianyane,
unknown in the south. It stands about eighteen inches high, is very
graceful in its movements, and utters a cry of alarm not unlike that of
the domestic fowl; it is of a brownish-red color on the sides and back,
with the belly and lower part of the tail white; it is very timid, but
the maternal affection that the little thing bears to its young will
often induce it to offer battle even to a man approaching it. When the
young one is too tender to run about with the dam, she puts one foot
on the prominence about the seventh cervical vertebra, or withers; the
instinct of the young enables it to understand that it is now required
to kneel down, and to remain quite still till it hears the bleating of
its dam. If you see an otherwise gregarious she-antelope separated from
the herd, and going alone any where, you may be sure she has laid her
little one to sleep in some cozy spot. The color of the hair in the
young is better adapted for assimilating it with the ground than that of
the older animals, which do not need to be screened from the observation
of birds of prey. I observed the Arabs at A