Chap. VIII. RETURN TO LINYANTI. 177 



We paddled on from midday till sunset. There was nothing 

 but a "wall of reed on each bank, and we saw every prospect of 

 spending a supperless night in our float ; but just as the short 

 twilight of these parts was commencing, we perceived on the north 

 bank the village of Moremi, one of the Makololo, whose acquaint- 

 ance I had made in our former visit, and who was now 

 located on the island Mahonta (lat. 17° 58' S., long. 24° 6' E.). 

 The villagers looked as we may suppose people do who see a 

 ghost, and in then figurative way of speaking said, " He has 

 dropped among us from the clouds, yet came riding on the back 

 of a hippopotamus ! We Makololo thought no one could cross 

 the Chobe "without our knowledge, but here he drops among us 

 like a bird." 



Next day we returned in canoes across the flooded lands, and 

 found that, in our absence, the men had allowed the cattle to 

 wander into a very small patch of wood to the west containing 

 the tsetse ; this carelessness cost me ten fine large oxen. After 

 remaining a few days, some of the head men of the Makololo 

 came down from Linyanti, with a large party of Barotse, to take 

 us across the river. This they did in fine style, swimming and 

 diving among the oxen more like alligators than men, and taking 

 the waggons to pieces and carrying them across on a number of 

 canoes lashed together. We were now among friends ; so going 

 about thirty miles to the north, in order to avoid the still flooded 

 lands on the north of the Chobe, we turned westwards towards 

 Linyanti (lat, 18° 17' 20" S., long. 23° 50' 9" E.), where we 

 arrived on the 23rd of May, 1853. This is the capital town of 

 the Makololo, and only a short distance from our waggon-stand 

 of 1851 (lat. 18° 20' S., long. 23° 50' E.). 



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