WATER-TUKTLES. 527 



went off honestly, with the exception of taking a fine " tari" skin 

 given me by Nyamoana, hut he left a parcel of gun-flints which he 

 had carried for me all the way from Loanda. I regretted parting 

 with him thus, and sent notice to him that he need not have run 

 away, and if he wished to come to Sekeletu again he would he 

 welcome. We subsequently met a large party of Barotse fleeing 

 in the same direction; but when I represented to them that there 

 was a probability of their being sold as slaves in Londa, and none 

 in the country of Sekeletu, they concluded to return. The griev- 

 ance which the Barotse most feel is being obliged to live with Se- 

 keletu at Linyanti, where there is neither fish nor fowl, nor any 

 other kind of food, equal in quantity to what they enjoy in their 

 own fat valley. 



A short distance below the confluence of the Leeba and Lee- 

 ambye we met a number of hunters belonging to the tribe called 

 Mambowe, who live under Masiko. They had dried flesh of 

 hippopotami, buffaloes, and alligators. They stalk the animals 

 by using the stratagem of a cap made of the skin of a leche's or 

 poku's head, having the horns still attached, and another made 

 so as to represent the upper white part of the crane called jabiru 

 {Mycteru Senegaleiisis), with its long neck and beak above. With 

 these on, they crawl through the grass ; they can easily put up 

 their heads so far as to see their prey without being recognized 

 until they are within bow-shot. They presented me with three 

 fine water-turtles,* one of which, when cooked, had upward of 

 forty eggs in its body. The shell of the egg is flexible, and it is 

 of the same size at both ends, like those of the alligator. The 

 flesh, and especially the liver, is excellent. The hunters informed 

 us that, when the message inculcating peace among the tribes 

 came to Masiko, the common people were so glad at the prospect 

 of "binding up the spears," that they ran to the river, and 

 bathed and plunged in it for joy. This party had been sent by 

 Masiko to the Makololo for aid to repel their enemy, but, afraid to 

 go thither, had spent the time in hunting. They have a dread of 

 the Makololo, and hence the joy they expressed when peace was 



* It is probably a species allied to the Sternotkerus sinuatus of Dr. Smith, as it 

 has no disagreeable smell. This variety annually leaves the water with so much 

 regularity for the deposit cf its eggs, that the natives decide on the time of sowing 

 their seed by its appearance. 



