ut five hundred yards to the south of that, in
what is now the bed of the river. All that remains of the largest mound
in the valley are a few cubic yards of earth, to erect which cost the
whole of the people of Santuru the labor of many years. The same thing
has happened to another ancient site of a town, Linangelo, also on the
left bank. It would seem, therefore, that the river in this part of the
valley must be wearing eastward. No great rise of the river is required
to submerge the whole valley; a rise of ten feet above the present
low-water mark would reach the highest point it ever attains, as seen in
the markings of the bank on which stood Santuru's ancient capital,
and two or three feet more would deluge all the villages. This never
happens, though the water sometimes comes so near the foundations of
the huts that the people can not move outside the walls of reeds which
encircle their villages. When the river is compressed among the high
rocky banks near Gonye, it rises sixty feet.

The influence of the partial obstruction it meets with there is seen
in the more winding course of the river north of 16 Deg.; and when the
swell gets past Katima-molelo, it spreads out on the lands on both banks
toward Sesheke.

Santuru, at whose ancient granary we are staying, was a great hunter,
and very fond of taming wild animals. His people, aware of his taste,
brought to him every young antelope they could catch, and, among other
things, two young hippopotami. These animals gamboled in the river
by day, but never failed to remember to come up to Naliele for their
suppers of milk and meal. They were the wonder of the country, till a
stranger, happening to come to visit Santuru, saw them reclining in the
sun, and speared one of them on the supposition that it was wild. The
same unlucky accident happened to one of the cats I had brought to
Sekeletu. A stranger, seeing an animal he had never viewed before,
killed it, and brought the trophy to the chief, thinking that he had
made a very remarkable discovery; we thereby lost the breed of cats, of
which, from the swarms of mice, we stood in great need.

On making inquiries to ascertain whether Santuru, the Moloiana, had ever
been visited by white men, I could find no vestige of any such visit;*
there is no evidence of any of Santuru's people having ever seen a white
man before the arrival of Mr. Oswell and myself in 1851. The people
have, it is true, no written records; but any rem