INTERVIEW WITH KATEMA. 198 



"I am the great Moene (lord) Katema, the fellow of Ma- 

 tiamvo. There is no one in the country equal to Matianivo 

 and me. I have always lived here, and my forefathers too. 

 There is the house in which my father lived. You found 

 no human skulls near the place where you are encamped. 

 I never killed any of the traders : they all come to me. I 

 am the great Moene Katema, of whom you have heard." 

 He looked as if he had fallen asleep tipsy and dreamed 

 of his greatness. On explaining my objects to him, he 

 promptly pointed out three men who would be our guides, 

 and explained that the northwest path was the most 

 direct, and that by which all traders came, but that the 

 water at present standing on the plains would reach up to 

 the loins : he would therefore send us by a more northerly 

 route, which no trader had yet traversed. This was more 

 suited to our wishes, for we never found a path safe that 

 had been trodden by slave-traders. 



We presented a few articles which pleased him highly, — 

 a small shawl, a razor, three bunches of beads, some but- 

 tons, and a powder-horn. Apologizing for the insignifi- 

 cance of the gift, I wished to know what I could bring 

 him from Loanda, saying, not a large thing, but something" 

 small. He laughed heartily at the limitation, and replied, 

 "Everything of the white people would be acceptable, and 

 he would receive any thing thankfully ; but the coat he 

 then had on was old, and he would like another." I intro- 

 duced the subject of the Bible; but one of the old coun- 

 cillors broke in, told all he had picked up from the Mam- 

 bari, and glided off into several other subjects. It is a 

 misery to speak through an interpreter, as I was now 

 forced to do. With a body of men like mine, composed as 

 they were of six different tribes, and all speaking the lan- 

 guage of the Bechuanas, there was no difficulty in commu- 

 cating on common subjects with any tribe we came to; but 

 doling out a story in which they felt no interest, and 

 which I understood only sufficiently well to perceive that 



a mere abridgment was given, was uncommonly slow 

 N 17 



