VICTORIA FALLS. 557 



nished with numbers of human skulls mounted on poles : a large 

 heap of the crania of hippopotami, the tusks untouched except bj 

 time, stood on one side. At a short distance, under some trees, 

 we saw the grave of Sekote, ornamented with seventy large ele- 

 phants' tusks planted round it with the points turned inward, and 

 there were thirty more placed over the resting-places of his rela- 

 tives. These were all decaying from the effects of the sun and 

 weather ; but a few, which had enjoyed the shade, were in a pretty 

 good condition. I felt inclined to take a specimen of the tusks 

 of the hippopotami, as they were the largest I had ever seen, but 

 feared that the people would look upon me as a " resurrectionist" 

 if I did, and regard any unfavorable event which might afterward 

 occur as a punishment for the sacrilege. The Batoka believe that 

 Sekote had a pot of medicine buried here, which, when opened, 

 would cause an epidemic in the country. These tyrants acted 

 much on the fears of their people. 



As this was the point from which we intended to strike off to 

 the northeast, I resolved on the following day to visit the falls of 

 Victoria, called by the natives Mosioatunya, or more anciently 

 Shongwe. Of these we had often heard since we came into the 

 country ; indeed, one of the questions asked by Sebituane was, 

 "Have you smoke that sounds in your country?" They did 

 not go near 'enough to examine them, but, viewing them with 

 awe at a distance, said, in reference to the vapor and noise, 

 " Mosi oa tunya" (smoke does sound there). It was previ- 

 ously called Shongwe, the meaning of which I could not ascer- 

 tain. The word for a "pot" resembles this, and it may mean a 

 seething caldron, but I am not certain of it. Being persuaded 

 that Mr. Oswell and myself were the very first Europeans who 

 ever visited the Zambesi in the centre of the country, and that 

 this is the connecting link between the known and unknown 

 portions of that river, I decided to use the same liberty as the 

 Makololo did, and gave the only English name I have affixed to 

 any part of the country. No better proof of previous ignorance 

 of this river could be desired than that an untraveled gentleman, 

 who had spent a great part of his life in the study of the ge- 

 ography of Africa, and knew every thing written on the subject 

 from the time of Ptolemy downward, actually asserted in the 

 "Athengeum," while I was coming up the Red Sea, that this 



