322 A DIGNIFIED ANCIENT. Chap. XVII. 



excitement. Intemese replied it was their custom, and they 

 meant no harm. The companion of the ox we slaughtered 

 refused food for two days, and went lowing about for him con- 

 tinually. He seemed inconsolable for his loss, and tried again 

 and again to escape back to the Makololo country. My men 

 remarked, " He thinks, they will kill me as well as my friend." 

 Katema thought it the result of art, and had fears of my skill 

 in medicine, and of course witchcraft. He refused to see the 

 magic lantern. 



One of the affairs winch had been intrusted by Shinte to 

 Intemese, was the rescue of a wife, who had eloped with a young 

 man belonging to Katema. As this was the only case I have 

 met with in the interior, in which a fugitive was sent back to a 

 chief against his own will, I am anxious to mention it. On 

 Intemese claiming her as Ins master's wife, she protested loudly 

 against it, saying, " she knew she was not going back to be a 

 wife again : she was going back to be sold to the Mambari." My 

 men formed many friendships with the people of Katema, and 

 some of the poorer classes said in confidence, "We wish our 

 children could go back with you to the Makololo country ; here 

 we are all in danger of being sold." My men were of opinion 

 that it was only the want of knowledge of the southern country 

 winch prevented an exodus of all the lower portions of Londa 

 population thither. 



It is remarkable how little people living in a flat forest 

 country like this, know of distant tribes. An old man, who said 

 he had been born about the same time as the late Matiamvo, 

 and had been Ins constant companion through life, visited us ; 

 and as I was sitting on some grass in front of the little gipsy 

 tent mending my camp stool, I invited him to take a seat on 

 the grass beside me. This was peremptorily refused : "he had 

 never sat on the ground during the late chief's reign, and he 

 was not going to degrade himself now." One of my men 

 handed him a log of wood taken from the fire, and helped him 

 out of the difficulty. When I offered him some cooked meat on 

 a plate, he would not touch that either, but would take it home. 

 So I humoured him by sending a servant to bear a few ounces 

 of meat to the town beliind him. He mentioned the Loio 

 (Lulua) as the branch of the Leeambye winch flows southwards 



