s time.
Sekeletu had gone from Naliele to the town of his mother before we
arrived from the north, but left an ox for our use, and instructions for
us to follow him thither. We came down a branch of the Leeambye called
Marile, which departs from the main river in latitude 15d 15' 43" S.,
and is a fine deep stream about sixty yards wide. It makes the whole of
the country around Naliele an island. When sleeping at a village in the
same latitude as Naliele town, two of the Arabs mentioned made their
appearance. They were quite as dark as the Makololo, but, having
their heads shaved, I could not compare their hair with that of the
inhabitants of the country. When we were about to leave they came to bid
adieu, but I asked them to stay and help us to eat our ox. As they had
scruples about eating an animal not blooded in their own way, I gained
their good-will by saying I was quite of their opinion as to getting
quit of the blood, and gave them two legs of an animal slaughtered by
themselves. They professed the greatest detestation of the Portuguese,
"because they eat pigs;" and disliked the English, "because they thrash
them for selling slaves." I was silent about pork; though, had they seen
me at a hippopotamus two days afterward, they would have set me down as
being as much a heretic as any of that nation; but I ventured to tell
them that I agreed with the English, that it was better to let the
children grow up and comfort their mothers when they became old, than to
carry them away and sell them across the sea. This they never attempt
to justify; "they want them only to cultivate the land, and take care
of them as their children." It is the same old story, justifying a
monstrous wrong on pretense of taking care of those degraded portions of
humanity which can not take care of themselves; doing evil that good may
come.

These Arabs, or Moors, could read and write their own language readily;
and, when speaking about our Savior, I admired the boldness with which
they informed me "that Christ was a very good prophet, but Mohammed was
far greater." And with respect to their loathing of pork, it may have
some foundation in their nature; for I have known Bechuanas, who had
no prejudice against the wild animal, and ate the tame without scruple,
yet, unconscious of any cause of disgust, vomit it again. The Bechuanas
south of the lake have a prejudice against eating fish, and allege a
disgust to eating any thing like a serpent. This