344 INTERVIEW WITH KATEMA. 



dom difficult to deal with. When we rose to take leave, all rose 

 with us, as at Shinte's. 



Returning next morning, Katema addressed me thus: "I am 

 the great Moene (lord) Katema, the fellow of Matiamvo. There 

 is no one in the country equal to Matiamvo 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 ob- 

 jects 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 buttons, and 

 a powder-horn. Apologizing for the insignificance 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, "Every thing 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 an- 

 other." I introduced the subject of the Bible, but one of 

 the old councilors broke in, told all he had picked up from 

 the Mambari, 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 communi- 

 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 abridg- 

 ment was given, was uncommonly slow work. Neither could 

 Katema's attention be arrested, except by compliments, of which 



