M0ZINKWA AND HIS FAMILY. 187 



a most intelligent and friendly man belonging to Katema. 

 lie had a fine large garden in cultivation, s and well hedged 

 round. He had made the walls of his compound, or court- 

 yard, of branches of the banian, which, taking root, had 

 grown to be a live hedge of that tree. Mozinkwa's wife 

 had cotton growing all round her premises, and several 

 plants used as relishes to the insipid porridge of the 

 country. She cultivated also the common castor-oil plant, 

 and a larger shrub (Jatropha curcas) which also yields a 

 purgative oil. Here, however, the oil is used for anointing 

 tho heads and bodies alone. We saw in her garden like- 

 wise the Indian bringalls, yams, and sweet potatoes. 

 Several trees were planted in the middle of the yard, and 

 ic the deep shade they gave stood the huts of his fine 

 family. His children, all by one mother, very black, but 

 cc nely to view, were the finest negro family I ever saw. 

 A\ 3 were much pleased with the frank friendship and 

 lit-erality of this man and his wife. She asked me to bring 

 hie a cloth from the white man's country; but, when we 

 re:urned, poor Mozinkwa's wife was in her grave, and he, 

 as is the custom, had abandoned trees, garden, and huts to 

 rum. They cannot live on a spot where a favorite wife 

 has died, probably because unable to bear the remem- 

 brance of the happy times they have spent there, or afraid 

 to remain in a spot where death has once visited the esta- 

 blishment. If ever the place is revisited, it is to pray to 

 her or make some offering. This feeling renders any per- 

 manent village in the country impossible. 



AVe learned from Mozinkwa that Soana Molopo was the 

 elder brother of Katema, but that he was wanting in wis- 

 dom ; and Katema, by purchasing cattle and receiving in 

 a kind manner all the fugitives who came to him, had 

 secured the birthright to himself, so far as influence in the 

 country is concerned. Soana^s first address to us did not 

 savor much of African wisdom. 



Friday, 10th. — On leaving Mozinkwa's hospitable mansion, 

 we crossed another stream, about forty yards wide, in 



