52 MEETING WITH SEBITUANE. 



often so soft that the fingers may be made to meet through 

 it. The lungs and liver partake of the disease. The 

 stomach and bowels are pale and empty, and the gall- 

 bladder is distended with bile. 



The mule, ass, and goat enjoy the same immunity from 

 the tsetse as man and game. Many large tribes on the 

 Zambesi can keep no domestic animals except the goat, in 

 consequence of the scourge existing in their country. Our 

 children were frequently bitten, yet suffered no harm; 

 and we saw around us numbers of zebras, buffaloes, pigs, 

 pallahs and other antelopes, feeding quietly in the very 

 habitat of the tsetse, yet as undisturbed by its bite as 

 oxen are when they first receive the fatal poison. 



The Makololo whom we met on the Chobe were delighted 

 to see us; and, as their chief Sebituane was about twenty 

 miles down the river, Mr. Oswell and I proceeded in canoes 

 to his temporary residence. He had come from the Barotse 

 town of JSTaliele down to Sesheke as soon as he heard of 

 white men being in search of him, and now came one hundred 

 miles more to bid us welcome into his country. He was 

 "upon an island, with all his principal men around him, and 

 engaged in singing when we arrived. It was more like 

 church-music than the sing 7 song e e e, se as se, of the 

 Bechuanas of the south, and they continued the tune for 

 some seconds after we approached. We informed him of the 

 difficulties we had encountered, and how glad we were that 

 they were all at an end by at last reaching his presence. 

 He signified his own joy, and added, "Your cattle are al ; 

 bitten by the tsetse, and will certainly die ; but never mind, 

 I have oxen, and will give you as many as you need." We, 

 in our ignorance, then thought that as so few tsetse had 

 bitten them no great mischief would follow. He then pre- 

 sented us with an ox and a jar of honey as food, and handed 

 us over to the care of Mahale, who had headed the party 

 to Kolobeng, and would now fain appropriate to himself 

 the whole credit of our coming. Prepared skins of oxen, 

 as soft as cloth, were given to cover us through the night; 



