ng, and among the rest "Mokala
a Mama", his "mamma's home". It was interesting to hear this tall
gray-headed man recall the memories of boyhood. All the Makalaka
children cleave to the mother in cases of separation, or removal from
one part of the country to another. This love for mothers does not argue
superior morality in other respects, or else Intemese has forgotten any
injunctions his mamma may have given him not to tell lies. The respect,
however, with which he spoke of her was quite characteristic of his
race. The Bechuanas, on the contrary, care nothing for their mothers,
but cling to their fathers, especially if they have any expectation of
becoming heirs to their cattle. Our Bakwain guide to the lake, Rachosi,
told me that his mother lived in the country of Sebituane, but, though
a good specimen of the Bechuanas, he laughed at the idea of going so
far as from the Lake Ngami to the Chobe merely for the purpose of seeing
her. Had he been one of the Makalaka, he never would have parted from
her.

We made our beds on one of the islands, and were wretchedly supplied
with firewood. The booths constructed by the men were but sorry shelter,
for the rain poured down without intermission till midday. There is no
drainage for the prodigious masses of water on these plains, except slow
percolation into the different feeders of the Leeba, and into that
river itself. The quantity of vegetation has prevented the country
from becoming furrowed by many rivulets or "nullahs". Were it not so
remarkably flat, the drainage must have been effected by torrents, even
in spite of the matted vegetation.

That these extensive plains are covered with grasses only, and the
little islands with but scraggy trees, may be accounted for by the fact,
observable every where in this country, that, where water stands for any
length of time, trees can not live. The want of speedy drainage destroys
them, and injures the growth of those that are planted on the islands,
for they have no depth of earth not subjected to the souring influence
of the stagnant water. The plains of Lobale, to the west of these, are
said to be much more extensive than any we saw, and their vegetation
possesses similar peculiarities. When the stagnant rain-water has all
soaked in, as must happen during the months in which there is no rain,
travelers are even put to straits for want of water. This is stated
on native testimony; but I can very well believe that level plains, i