Chap. XXY. FREEDOM OF SPEECH. 497 



brother Limboa came, captured his women as they went to their 

 gardens, and then appeared before his stockade. Masiko offered 

 to lead his men out ; but they objected, saying, " Let us servants 

 be killed ; you must not be slain." Those who said this were young 

 Barotse, who had been drilled to fighting by Sebituane, and used 

 shields of ox-hide. They beat off the party of Limboa, ten being- 

 wounded, and ten slain in the engagement. Limboa subsequently 

 sent three slaves, as a self-imposed fine to Masiko for attacking 

 him. I succeeded in getting the Makololo to treat the messengers 

 of Masiko well, though, as they regarded them as rebels, it was 

 somewhat against the grain at first to speak civilly to them. 



Mpololo, attempting to justify an opposite hue of conduct, told 

 me how they had fled from Sebituane, even though he had given 

 them numbers of cattle after their subjection by his arms, and 

 was rather surprised to find that I was disposed to think more 

 higldy of them for having asserted their independence, even at 

 the loss of milk. For this food, all who have been accustomed to 

 it from infancy in Africa, have an excessive longing. I pointed 

 out how they might be mutually beneficial to each other by the 

 exchange of canoes and cattle. 



There are some very old Barotse living here, who were the 

 companions of the old chief Santuru. These men, protected by 

 their age, were very free in their comments on the " upstart " 

 Makololo. One of them, for instance, interrupted my conversation 

 one day with some Makololo gentlemen, with the advice " not to 

 believe them, for they were only a set of thieves ;" and it was taken 

 in quite a good-natured way. It is remarkable that none of the 

 ancients here had any tradition of an earthquake having occurred 

 in this region. Their quick perception of events recognisable by 

 the senses, and retentiveness of memory, render it probable, that 

 no perceptible movement of the earth has taken place between 7° 

 and 27° S. in the centre of the continent, during the last two cen- 

 turies at least. There is no appearance of recent fracture or dis- 

 turbance of rocks to be seen in the central country, except the falls 

 of Gonye. Nor is there any evidence, or tradition of hurricanes. 



I left Xaliele on the 13th of August, and when proceeding 

 along the shore at mid-day, a hippopotamus struck the canoe with 

 her forehead, lifting one half of it quite out of the water, so as 

 nearlv to overturn it. The force of the butt she gave, tilted 



2 K 



