den, when making their camels
kneel down, press the thumb on the withers in exactly the same way the
antelopes do with their young; probably they have been led to the custom
by seeing this plan adopted by the gazelle of the Desert.

Great numbers of buffaloes, zebras, tsessebes, tahaetsi, and eland, or
pohu, grazed undisturbed on these plains, so that very little exertion
was required to secure a fair supply of meat for the party during the
necessary delay. Hunting on foot, as all those who have engaged in it in
this country will at once admit, is very hard work indeed. The heat of
the sun by day is so great, even in winter, as it now was, that, had
there been any one on whom I could have thrown the task, he would have
been most welcome to all the sport the toil is supposed to impart. But
the Makololo shot so badly, that, in order to save my powder, I was
obliged to go myself.

We shot a beautiful cow-eland, standing in the shade of a fine tree. It
was evident that she had lately had her calf killed by a lion, for there
were five long deep scratches on both sides of her hind-quarters, as
if she had run to the rescue of her calf, and the lion, leaving it, had
attacked herself, but was unable to pull her down. When lying on the
ground, the milk flowing from the large udder showed that she must have
been seeking the shade, from the distress its non-removal in the natural
manner caused. She was a beautiful creature, and Lebeole, a Makololo
gentleman who accompanied me, speaking in reference to its size and
beauty, said, "Jesus ought to have given us these instead of cattle." It
was a new, undescribed variety of this splendid antelope. It was marked
with narrow white bands across the body, exactly like those of the
koodoo, and had a black patch of more than a handbreadth on the outer
side of the fore-arm.

Chapter 12.

Procure Canoes and ascend the Leeambye--Beautiful Islands--Winter
Landscape--Industry and Skill of the Banyeti--Rapids--Falls of
Gonye--Tradition--Annual Inundations--Fertility of the great
Barotse Valley--Execution of two Conspirators--The Slave-dealer's
Stockade--Naliele, the Capital, built on an artificial Mound--Santuru,
a great Hunter--The Barotse Method of commemorating any remarkable
Event--Better Treatment of Women--More religious Feeling--Belief in a
future State, and in the Existence of spiritual Beings--Gardens--Fish,
Fruit, and Game--Proceed to the Limits of the Barotse Country--
Sekelet