THE TSETSE PROBLEM IN NORTH MOSSURISE. 666 



for th.e numberless native villages and a continuity of native gardens. This complete 

 clearing was confined to the lower-lying areas. The Puizisi-Mtshanedzi hill-mass, 

 as Makwiana told me himself, was relatively little affected by the new settlement, 

 and the bush was never at all completely cleared. It was, however, surrounded 

 on three sides by a broad cleared cordon, and on the other, backed by the highlands. 



In Mtobe's and Mafusi's the bush was never fully cleared ; the rubber forests 

 already existed and they continued to do so, although, according to Mafusi and 

 others, they then consisted merely of umfomoti wooding (Piptadenia) that was 

 chiefly confined to the ravines. In Gungunyana's time they had already spread 

 greatly (under encouragement), and many Landolphia vines existed throughout 

 the new areas not yet wrist-thick. They were a valuable asset to the Zulus, who 

 traded the rubber for cloth on the coast, and used the latter in turn in the barter 

 of cattle. Again, away from the neighbourhood of the Mtshanedzi and the Buzi 

 the " Oblong " remained completely uninhabited and uncleared. 



Zinyumbo's area, like Gogoyo's, was very completely cleared — "right to the 

 Mwangezi it was gardens only," as was Gwenzi's country, the Mossurise valley 

 and portions of the Sabi. 



The Effect on the Game. 



Large mammals became very scarce — not merely big game, but pigs and baboons. 

 " The Mango iii (Zulus) are killers of everything, men and animals." Drives with 

 nets were organized across the entire country, and game, pigs and baboons were 

 thus killed wholesale. If a herd of buffalos was reported subsequently anywhere 

 west of the Sitatongas, it was at once hunted ; if pigs appeared in a garden, they 

 were at once tracked down to their retreat,', and, the people round having been 

 called out, were surrounded and killed. Except on its fringes the " Oblong," 

 then as now, was a great uninhabited game reserve, The game in it was thimied, 

 it is true, and was kept well driven within its borders, but there still remained enough 

 to attract the Mangoni hunting parties. In the heavily settled areas a few bush- 

 bucks, duikers and pigs were still to be found throughout the period. 



The Effect on the Tsetses. 



There were still plenty of int-hesi (tsetse) in the tondo-bush on the granite-gneiss, 

 and fly never disappeared in the " Oblong." In neither place could cattle ever be 

 kept. In Mtebe's country too and the eastern part of Mafusi's — ^that is, within 

 a short distance of rubber forest — ^they could never keep cattle. Mafusi told me that 

 he remembered the fly there, with the same distribution as now, from the time he 

 was a child, except that it has spread with the spread of the forest. At Maronga's 

 and beyond — ^that is, in the continuation eastward across the Lusitu of the rubber 

 forests — cattle could never be kept, though Usele and other Zulus settled there 

 and made the attempt. In such places the cattle required for ceremonial purposes 

 used to be brought, as needed, from the safe areas. Cattle also continued to fail 

 in Gunye's country and south of the Buzi from the Mwangezi eastwards, though 

 persistent and prolonged attempts were made to keep them in this area of sparse 

 fly, the losses in some cases being made up time after time from outside. 

 (737) b2 



