Chap. XVII. TRADITION OF LAKE DILOLO. 327 



Immediately beyond Dilolo there is a large flat about twenty 

 miles in breadth. Here Shakatwala insisted on our remaining 

 to get supplies of food from Katema's subjects, before entering 

 the uninhabited watery plains. When asked the meaning of 

 the name Dilolo, Shakatwala gave the following account of the 

 formation of the lake. A female chief, called Moene (lord) Mo- 

 nenga, came one evening to the village of Mosogo, a man who 

 lived in the vicinity, but who had gone to hunt with his dogs. 

 She asked for a supply of food, and Mosogo's wife gave her a 

 sufficient quantity. Proceeding to another village standing on 

 the spot now occupied by the water, she preferred the same 

 demand, and was not only refused, but, when she uttered a 

 threat for their niggardliness, was taunted with the question, 

 " What could she do though she were thus treated?" In order 

 to show what she could do she began a song, in slow time, and 

 uttered her own name, Monenga-w55. As she prolonged the 

 last note, the village, people, fowls, and dogs, sank into the space 

 now called Dilolo. When Kasimakate, the headman of this 

 village, came home and found out the catastrophe, he cast him- 

 self into the lake, and is supposed to be in it still. The name is 

 derived from " ilolo," despair, because this man gave up all hope 

 when his family was destroyed. Monenga was put to death. 

 This may be a faint tradition of the Deluge, and it is remarkable 

 as the only one I have met with in this country. 



Heavy rains prevented us from crossing the plain in front 

 (N.N.W.) in one day, and the constant wading among the grass 

 hurt the feet of the men. There is a footpath all the way 

 across, but as this is worn down beneath the level of the rest of 

 the plain, it is necessarily the deepest portion, and the men, 

 avoiding it, make a new walk by its side. A path, however 

 narrow, is a great convenience, as any one who has travelled on 

 foot in Africa will readily admit. The virtual want of it here, 

 caused us to make slow and painful progress. 



Ants surely are wiser than some men, for they learn by expe- 

 rience. They have established themselves even on these plains, 

 where water stands so long annually, as to allow the lotus, and 

 other aqueous plants, to come to maturity. When all the ant 

 horizon is submerged a foot deep, they manage to exist by 

 ascending to little houses built of black tenacious loam on stalks 



