TRADITION OF LAKE DILOLO. 353 



Immediately beyond Dilolo there is a large flat about twenty 

 miles in breadth. Here Shakatwala insisted on our remaining 

 to get supplies of food from Katema's subjects, before entering the 

 uninhabited watery plains. When asked the meaning of the name 

 Dilolo, Shakatwala gave the following account of the formation of 

 the lake. A female chief, called Moene (lord) Monenga, came one 

 evening to the village of Mosogo, a man who lived in the vicinity, 

 but who had gone to hunt with his dogs. She asked for a supply 

 of food, and Mosogo's wife gave her a sufficient quantity. Pro- 

 ceeding to another village standing on the spot now occupied by 

 the water, she preferred the same demand, and was not only re- 

 fused, but, when she uttered a threat for their niggardliness, was 

 taunted with the question, "What could she do though she were 

 thus treated ?" In order to show what she could do, she began a 

 song, in slow time, and uttered her own name, Monenga-woo. As 

 she prolonged the last note, the village, people, fowls, and dogs 

 sank into the space now called Dilolo. When Kasimakate, the 

 head man of this village, came home and found out the catastro- 

 phe, he cast himself into the lake, and is supposed to be in it still. 

 The name is derived from " ilolo," despair, because this man gave 

 up all hope when his family was destroyed. Monenga was put to 

 death. This may be a faint tradition of the Deluge, and it is re- 

 markable as the only one I have met with in this country. 



Heavy rains prevented us from crossing the plain in front 

 (N.N.W.) in one day, and the constant wading among the grass 

 hurt the feet of the men. There is a footpath all the way across, 

 but as this is worn down beneath the level of the rest of the plain, 

 it is necessarily the deepest portion, and the men, avoiding it, 

 make a new walk by its side. A path, however narrow, is a great 

 convenience, as any one who has traveled on foot in Africa will 

 admit. The virtual want of it here caused us to make slow and 

 painful progress. 



Ants surely are wiser than some men, for they learn by experi- 

 ence. They have established themselves even on these plains, 

 where water stands so long annually as to allow the lotus, and 

 other aqueous plants, to come to maturity. When all the ant 

 horizon is submerged a foot deep, they manage to exist by as- 

 cending to little houses built of black tenacious loam on stalks 

 of grass, and placed higher than the line of inundation. This 



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