490 WATER-TURTLES. Chap. XXIV. 



He went off honestly, with the exception of taking a fine " tari " 

 skin given me by Nyamoana, but he left a parcel of gun-flints 

 which he had carried for me all the way from Loanda. I re- 

 gretted parting with him thus, and sent notice to him that he 

 need not have run away, and if he wished to come to Sekeletu 

 again, he would be welcome. We subsequently met a large party 

 of Barotse fleeing in the same direction, but when I represented 

 to them that there was a probability of their being sold as slaves 

 in Londa., and none in the country of Sekeletu, they concluded 

 to return. The grievance which the Barotse most feel, is being 

 obliged to live with Sekeletu at Linyanti, where there is neither 

 fish nor fowl, nor any other kind of food, equal in quantity to 

 what they enjoy in their own fat valley. 



A short distance below the confluence of the Leeba and Lee- 

 ambye, we met a number of hunters belonging to the tribe called 

 Mambowe, who live under Masiko. They had dried flesh of 

 hippopotami, buffaloes, and alligators. They stalk the animals 

 by using the stratagem of a cap made of the skin of a leche's or 

 poku's head, having the horns still attached, and another made 

 so as to represent the upper white part of the crane called jabiru 

 {Mycteru Senegalensis), with its long neck and beak above. With 

 these on, they crawl through the grass ; they can easily put up 

 their heads so far as to see their prey without being recognised 

 until they are witliin bowshot. They presented me with three 

 fine water-turtles,* one of winch, when cooked, had upwards of 

 forty eggs in its body. The shell of the egg is flexible, and it is 

 of the same size at both ends, like those of the alligator. The 

 flesh, and especially the liver, is excellent. The hunters informed 

 us, that when the message inculcating peace among the tribes 

 came to Masiko, the common people were so glad at the prospect 

 of " binding up the spears," that they ran to the river, and 

 bathed and plunged in it for joy. This party had been sent by 

 Masiko to the Makololo for aid to repel their enemy, but, afraid 

 to go thither, had spent the time in hunting. They have a dread 

 of the Makololo, and hence the joy they expressed when peace was 



* It is probably a species allied to tbe Sternotherus sinuatus of Dr. Smith, 

 as it has no disagreeable smell. This variety annually leaves the water with 

 so much regularity for the deposit of its eggs, that the natives decide on the 

 time of sowing their seed by its appearance. 



