320 INTERVIEW WITH KATEMA. Chap. XVII. 



his sides with inirth, is seldom difficult to deal with. When Ave 

 rose to take leave, all rose with us, as at Shinte's. 



Returning next morning, Katema addressed me thus — "I 

 am the great Moene (lord) Katema, the fellow of Matiamvo. 

 There is no one in this country equal to Matiamvo and me. I 

 have always lived here, and my forefathers too. There is the 

 house in which my father lived. You found no human skulls 

 near the place where you are encamped. I never killed any 

 of the traders ; they all come to me. I am the great Moene 

 Katema, of whom you have heard." He looked as if he had 

 fallen asleep tipsy, and dreamed of his greatness. On explain- 

 ing my objects to him, he promptly pointed out three men who 

 would be our guides, and explained that the N.W. path was 

 the most direct, and that by which all traders came, but that 

 the water at present standing on the plains would reach up to 

 the loins ; he would therefore send us by a more northerly route, 

 which no trader had yet traversed. This was more suited to our 

 wishes, for we never found a path safe that had been trodden by 

 slave-traders. 



We presented a few articles, which pleased him highly; a 

 small shawl, a razor, three bunches of beads, some buttons, and 

 a powder-horn. Apologising for the insignificance of the gift, 

 I wished to know what I could bring him from Loanda, saying 

 not a large thing, but something small. He laughed heartily 

 at the limitation, and replied, " Everything of the white people 

 would be acceptable, and he would receive anything thankfully ; 

 but the coat he had then on was old, and he would like 

 another." I introduced the subject of the Bible, but one of 

 the old councillors broke in, told all he had picked up from 

 the Mambari, and glided off into several other subjects. It 

 is a misery to speak through an interpreter, as I was now 

 forced to do. W T ith a body of men like mine, composed as 

 they were of six different tribes, and all speaking the lan- 

 guage of the Bechuanas, there was no difficulty in communi- 

 cating on common subjects with any tribe we came to ; but 

 doling out a story in which they felt no interest, and which I 

 understood only sufficiently well to perceive that a mere abridg- 

 ment was given, was uncommonly slow work. Neither could 

 Katema's attention be arrested, except by compliments, of winch 



