MAKALOLO Mf:THODS OF PKOTECTION. 139 



on interpreters, native testimony on matters of fact is 

 quite as good as European. 



"The Makalolo are a people from infancy accustomed 

 to tend cattle, possessing a thorough knowledge of the 

 most fattening pastures to be sought, and noxious herbs to 

 be avoided. Their only wealth consists in cattle, which 

 they number by thousands. All affirm that on entering 

 certain localities by day the oxen die shortly afterwards ; 

 this they have proved, not in the vsmall numbers of twenty 

 or forty noticed by Europeans, but in herds consisting of 

 hundreds ; whether in great or small numbers they have 

 found the result alike. They have further learned that 

 these deadly places may be crossed with safety by night 

 if sufficiently narrow to allow of the cattle being driven 

 through before sunrise. This has been tested by 

 Europeans and found also correct ; further, that goats 

 remain unaffected, and sheep suffer in a less degree than 

 oxen." 



* * * » « 



" The fly avoids human excrement, so the natives told 

 us, and we have found it true, and they say that cattle 

 have been passed by day through fly country when 

 smeared with a composition containing this. Native 

 doctors have an herb to which they attribute a similar 

 effect, but even they never assert that it will save all ; 

 only a small per cent, of the cattle exposed is the most 

 they claim " (pp. 152-154). 



Lung-sickness, African distemper, etc., " differ mani- 

 festly from the ' Tsetse ' disease in being contagious and 

 spreading from one place to another and from one animal 

 to another, whereas only those bitten by the fly die ; and 

 no danger has been apprehended or experienced by such 

 cattle mixing with others" (p. 154). 



" The flrst symptoms [of Tsetse-fly disease] appear 

 commonly within four days, but this varies with the 

 number of flies and the season of the year. Natives 

 report that cattle bitten die in greatest numbers before 

 the rains, or when they set in, and that some animals will 

 linger on until then ; that having passed a fly country you 

 do not know the full amount of loss until the rainy season 

 has begun " (p. 155). 



