204 THE CHIEF'S GUARD. Chap. XI. 



to the Indian, but with a smaller seed. The soil on all the flat 

 parts is a rich dark tenacious loam, known as the " cotton- 

 ground " in India ; it is covered with a dense matting of coarse 

 grass, common on all damp spots in this country. We had the 

 Chobe on our right, with its scores of miles of reed occupying the 

 horizon there. It was pleasant to look back on the long-extended 

 line of our attendants, as it twisted and bent according to the 

 curves of the footpath, or in and out behind the mounds, the 

 ostrich-feathers of the men waving in the wind. Some had the 

 white ends of ox-tails on their heads, hussar fashion, and others 

 great bunches of black ostrich-feathers, or caps made of lions' 

 manes. Some wore red tunics, or various-coloured prints winch 

 the chief had bought from Fleming; the common men carried 

 burdens ; the gentlemen walked with a small club of rhinoceros 

 horn in their hands, and had servants to carry their shields; 

 while the "Machaka," battle-axe men, carried their own, and 

 were liable at any time to be sent off a hundred miles on an 

 errand, and expected to run all the way. 



Sekeletu is always accompanied by his own Mopato, a number 

 of young men of his own age. When he sits down they crowd 

 around him ; those who are nearest eat out of the same dish, for 

 the Makololo chiefs pride themselves on eating with their people. 

 He eats a little, then beckons his neighbours to partake. When 

 they have done so, he perhaps beckons to some one at a distance 

 to take a share ; that person starts forward, seizes the pot, and 

 removes it to his own companions. The comrades of Sekeletu, 

 wishing to imitate liim in riding on my old horse, leaped on the 

 backs of a number of half-broken Batoka oxen as they ran, but, 

 having neither saddle nor bridle, the number of tumbles they 

 met with was a source of much amusement to the rest. Troops 

 of leches, or, as they are here called, " lechwes," appeared feeding 

 quite heedlessly all over the flats ; they exist here in prodigious 

 herds, although the numbers of them and of the " nakong " that 

 are killed annually, must be enormous. Both are water ante- 

 lopes, and, when the lands we now tread upon are flooded, they 

 betake themselves to the mounds I have alluded to. The Maka- 

 laka, who are most expert in the management of their small, 

 thin, light canoes, come gently towards them ; the men stand 

 upright in the canoe, though it is not more than fifteen or 



