554 A THUNDER-STORM. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



Departure from Linyanti. — A Thunder-storm. — An Act of genuine Kindness. — 

 Fitted out a second time by the Makololo. — Sail down the Leeambye. — Sekote's 

 Kotla and human Skulls ; his Grave adorned with Elephants' Tusks. — Victoria 

 Falls. — Native Names. — Columns of Vapor. — Gigantic Crack. — Wear of the 

 Rocks. — Shrines of the Barimo. — "The Pestle of the Gods." — Second Visit to 

 the Falls. — Island Garden. — Stove-house Island. — Native Diviners. — A Euro- 

 pean Diviner. — Makololo Foray. — Marauder to be fined. — Mambari. — Makololo 

 wish to stop Mambari Slave-trading. — Part with Sekeletu. — Night Traveling. — 

 River Lekone. — Ancient fresh-water Lakes. — Formation of Lake Ngami. — Na- 

 tive Traditions. — Drainage of the Great Valley. — Native Reports of the Country 

 to the North. — Maps. — Moyara's Village. — Savage Customs of the Batoka. — A 

 Chain of Trading Stations. — Remedy against Tsetse. — "The Well of Joy." — 

 First Traces of Trade with Europeans. — Knocking out the front Teeth. — Face- 

 tious Explanation. — Degradation of the Batoka. — Description of the Traveling 

 Party. — Cross the Unguesi. — Geological Formation. — Ruins of a large Town. — 

 Productions of the Soil similar to those in Angola. — Abundance of Fruit. 



On the 3d of November we bade adieu to our friends at Lin- 

 yanti, accompanied by Sekeletu and about 200 followers. We 

 were all fed at his expense, and he took cattle for this purpose 

 from every station we came to. The principal men of the Ma- 

 kololo, Lebeole, Ntlarie, Nkwatlele, etc., were also of the party. 

 We passed through the patch of the tsetse, which exists between 

 Linyanti and Sesheke, by night. The majority of the company 

 went on by daylight, in order to prepare our beds. Sekeletu and 

 I, with about forty young men, waited outside the tsetse till dark. 

 We then went forward, and about ten o'clock it became so pitchy 

 dark that both horses and men were completely blinded. The 

 lightning spread over the sky, forming eight or ten branches at a 

 time, in shape exactly like those of a tree. This, with great vol- 

 umes of sheet-lightning, enabled us at times to see the whole 

 country. The intervals between the flashes were so densely dark 

 as to convey the idea of stone-blindness. The horses trembled, 

 cried out, and turned round, as if searching for each other, and 

 every new flash revealed the men taking different directions, laugh- 

 ing, and stumbling against each other. The thunder was of that 



