Chap. IT. MEETING WITH SEBITUANE. 83 



country and catch some specimens of tsetse on the animal, in ten 

 days afterwards the horse was dead. 



The "well-known disgust which the tsetse shows to animal 

 excreta, as exhibited when a village is placed in its habitat, has 

 been observed and turned to account by some of the doctors. 

 They mix droppings of animals, human milk, and some medicines 

 together, and smear the animals that are about to pass through a 

 tsetse district ; but this, though it proves a preventive at the time, 

 is not permanent. There is no cure yet known for the disease. 

 A careless herdsman allowing a large number of cattle to wander 

 into a tsetse district loses all except the calves ; and Sebituane 

 once lost nearly the entire cattle of his tribe — very many thou- 

 sands — by unwittingly coming under its influence. Inoculation 

 does not insure immunity, as animals which have been slightly 

 bitten in one year may perish by a greater number of bites in 

 the next ; but it is probable that with the increase of guns the 

 game will perish, as has happened in the south, and the tsetse, 

 deprived of food, may become extinct simultaneously with the 

 larger animals. 



The ILakololo whom we met on the Chobe were delighted to see 

 us ; and as their chief Sebituane was about twenty miles down the 

 river, Mr. Oswell and I proceeded in canoes to his temporary 

 residence. He had come from the Barotse town of Naliele down 

 to Sesheke as soon as he heard of white men being in search of 

 him, and now came one hundred miles more to bid us welcome 

 into his country. He was upon an island with all his principal 

 men around him, and engaged in singing when we arrived. It 

 was more like church music than the sing-song e e e, se ae se, of 

 the Bechuanas in the south ; and they continued the tune for 

 some seconds after we approached. We informed liim of the diffi- 

 culties we had encountered, and how glad we were that they were 

 all at an end by at last reaching his presence. He signified liis 

 own joy, and added, " Your cattle are all bitten by the tsetse and 

 will certainly die ; but never mind, I have oxen and will give you 

 as many as you need." We, in our ignorance, then thought that, 

 as so few tsetse had bitten them, no great mischief would follow. 

 He then presented us with an ox and a jar of honey as food, and 

 handed us over to the care of Mahale, who had headed the party 

 to Kolobeng, and would now fain appropriate to himself the whole 



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