MEETING WITH SEBITUANE. 97 



country and catch some specimens of tsetse on the animal, in ten 

 days afterward the horse was dead. 



The well-known disgust which the tsetse shows to animal ex- 

 creta, as exhibited when a village is placed in its habitat, has been 

 observed and turned to account by some of the doctors. They 

 mix droppings of animals, human milk, and some medicines to- 

 gether, and smear the animals that are about to pass through a 

 tsetse district ; but this, though it proves a preventive at the time, 

 is not permanent. There is no cure yet known for the disease. 

 A careless herdsman allowing a large number of cattle to wander 

 into a tsetse district loses all except the calves ; and Sebituane 

 once lost nearly the entire cattle of his tribe, very many thou- 

 sands, by unwittingly coming under its influence. Inoculation 

 does not insure immunity, as animals which have been slightly 

 bitten in one year may perish by a greater number of bites in the 

 next ; but it is probable that with the increase of guns the game 

 will perish, as has happened in the south, and the tsetse, deprived 

 of food, may become extinct simultaneously with the larger ani- 

 mals. 



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 Naliele 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-song e e e, se s& 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 all 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 presented 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 



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