220 GARDENS— GAME. Chap. XII. 



order to pack up the instruments as soon as I had finished ; there 

 Avas a large halo, about 20° in diameter, round the sun ; thinking 

 that the humidity of the atmosphere, winch this indicated, might 

 Letoken rain, I asked him if his experience did not lead him to 

 the same view. " O no," replied he ; " it is the Barimo (gods, or 

 departed spirits), who have called a picho ; don't you see they 

 have the Lord (sun) in the centre ?" 



While still at Naliele I walked out to Katongo (lat. 15° 16' 33"), 

 on the ridge which bounds the valley of the Barotse in that 

 direction, and found it covered with trees. It is only the com- 

 mencement of the lands which are never inundated ; their gentle 

 rise from the dead level of the valley much resembles the edge 

 of the Desert in the valley of the Nile. But here the Banyeti 

 have fine gardens, and raise great quantities of maize, millet, and 

 native corn (Holms sorghum), of large grain and beautifully white. 

 They grow, also, yams, sugar-cane, the Egyptian arum, sweet 

 potato (Convolulus batata), two kinds of manioc or cassava (Ja- 

 tropha manihot and J. utilissima, a variety containing scarcely 

 any poison), besides pumpkins, melons, beans, and ground-nuts. 

 These, with plenty of fish in the river, its branches and lagoons, 

 wild fruits and water-fowl, always make the people refer to the 

 Barotse as the land of plenty. The scene from the ridge, on 

 looking back, was beautiful. One cannot see the western side 

 of the valley in a cloudy day, such as that was when we visited 

 the stockade, but we could see the great river glancing out at 

 different points, and fine large herds of cattle quietly grazing on 

 the green succulent herbage, among numbers of cattle-stations 

 and villages which are dotted over the landscape. Leches in 

 hundreds fed securely beside them, for they have learned only to 

 keep out of bow-shot, or two hundred yards. When guns come 

 into a country the animals soon learn their longer range, and 

 begin to run at a distance of five hundred yards. 



I imagined the slight elevation (Katongo) might be healthy, 

 but was informed that no part of this region is exempt from fever. 

 When the waters begin to retire from this valley, such masses of 

 decayed vegetation and mud are exposed to the torrid sun, that 

 even the natives suffer severely from attacks of fever. The grass 

 is so rank in its growth, that one cannot see the black alluvial 

 soil of the bottom of this periodical lake. Even when the grass 



