Natives Not Truthful. 39 



This would have been all right if Ubibu had seen fit to 

 tell the truth, but he lied horribly and informed the Assistant 

 Resident that I had given him forty strokes with the 

 chikoti (hide whip, called sjambok in South Africa). Now, 

 I did not even possess a chikoti at that time, but the 

 Assistant Resident did not know this, and he believed 

 Ubibu's story, although he was a clever official and a very 

 sensible man. 



I wonder why he did not examine the man's body, for a 

 native who got even twenty strokes would likely be unable 

 to walk well for some time. Thinking the case was too 

 serious for him to adjudicate on, he gave Ubibu two shillings 

 and a letter, and sent him to Lilongwe, the head station of 

 Central Angoniland, and some seventy miles off. The 

 Resident (or Magistrate) passed Ubibu on the road without 

 getting the letter, but I had gone to Fort Manning, where I 

 had seen both the Resident and Assistant Resident, and told 

 them the true facts of the matter, so, on the Resident getting 

 back to Lilongwe, he sent back Ubibu to Fort Manning. On 

 the day the case was heard I gave the knobkerry to the 

 owner to carry off to the Boma, as he was a witness. All 

 my witnesses admitted that Ubibu had been beaten with the 

 knobstick, and when this was produced it was found to be 

 badly splintered. This, it was easy to notice, had been done 

 on a rock, as the marks showed ; but it also shows how 

 natives will often not only lie, but will combine to blacken a 

 case. The court capitao and interpreter belonged to the 

 same tribe as Ubibu, and I heard afterwards that when I was 

 sitting with the Assistant Resident in his house, before we 

 went up to his office, the interpreter, at the instigation 

 of Ubibu, hammered the knobkerry on a rock they were 

 sitting on. As I had taken the law into my own hands, 

 very foolishly, but I think very naturally, I had the pleasure 

 of paying Ubibu three shillings in cash and refunding the 

 two shillings given him by the Assistant Resident to pay 

 for his food on the road to Lilongwe. 



On July 2 I shot an oribi and also a reedbuck ram that 

 was running with four does. Reedbuck and oribi are 



