Chap. XIV. SEKOBINYANE'S MISGOVEENMENT. 247 



external air to any spot at once raises its temperature above 90°. 

 A new attack of fever here caused excessive languor ; but, as I 

 am already getting tired of quoting my fevers, and never liked 

 to read travels myself, where much was said about the illnesses 

 of the traveller, I shall henceforth endeavour to say little about 

 them. 



We here sent back the canoe of Sekeletu, and got the loan of 

 others from Mpololo. Eight riding oxen, and seven for slaughter, 

 were, according to the orders of that chief, also furnished ; some 

 were intended for our own use, and others as presents to the 

 chiefs of the Balonda. Mpololo was particularly liberal in giving 

 all that Sekeletu ordered, though, as he feeds on the cattle he 

 has in charge, he might have felt it so much abstracted from his 

 own perquisites. Mpololo now acts the great man, and is fol- 

 lowed everywhere by a crowd of toadies, who sing songs in dis- 

 paragement of Mpepe, of whom he always lived in fear. While 

 Mpepe was alive, he too was regaled with the same fulsome 

 adulation, and now they curse him. They are very foul-tongued ; 

 equals, on meeting, often greet each other with a profusion of 

 oaths, and end the volley with a laugh. 



In coming up the river to Naliele we met a party of fugitive 

 Barotse returning to their homes, and, as the circumstance illus- 

 trates the social status of these subjects of the Makololo, I intro- 

 duce it here. The villagers in question were the children, or 

 serfs, if we may use the term, of a young man of the same age 

 and tribe as Sekeletu, who, being of an irritable temper, went 

 by the nickname of Sekobinyane — a little slavish thing. His 

 treatment of his servants was so bad, that most of them had fled ; 

 and when the Mambari came, and, contrary to the orders of 

 Sekeletu, purchased slaves, Sekobinyane sold one or two of the 

 Barotse children of his village. The rest fled immediately to 

 Masiko, and were gladly received by that Barotse chief as his 

 subjects. 



When Sekeletu and I first ascended the Leeambye we met 

 Sekobinyane coming down, on his way to Linyanti. On being 

 asked the news, he remained silent about the loss of his village, 

 it being considered a crime among the Makololo for any one to 

 treat his people so ill, as to cause them to run away from him. 

 He then passed us, and, dreading the vengeance of Sekeletu for 



