518 VICTORIA FALLS. Chap. XXVI. 



elder Sekote, garnished with numbers of human skulls mounted 

 on poles : a large heap of the crania of hippopotami, the tusks 

 untouched except by time, stood on one side. At a short distance, 

 under some trees, we saw the grave of Sekote, ornamented with 

 seventy large elephants' tusks, planted round it with the points 

 turned inwards, and there were thirty more placed over the resting- 

 places of his relatives. These were all decaying from the effects 

 of the sun and weather ; but a few, which had enjoyed the shade, 

 were in a pretty good condition. I felt inclined to take a speci- 

 men of the tusks of the hippopotami, as they were the largest I 

 had ever seen ; but feared that the people would look upon me as 

 a " resurrectionist " if I did, and regard any unfavourable event 

 which might afterwards occur, as a punishment for the sacrilege. 

 The Batoka believe that Sekote had a j)ot of medicine buried here, 

 which, when opened, would cause an epidemic in the country. 

 These tyrants acted much on the fears of their people. 



As this was the point from which we intended to strike off to 

 the north-east, I resolved on the following day to visit the falls of 

 Victoria, called by the natives Mosioatunya, or more anciently 

 Shongwe. Of these we had often heard since we came into the 

 country: indeed one of the questions asked by Sebituane was, 

 " Have you smoke that sounds in your country ? " They did 

 not go near enough to examine them, but, viewing them with 

 awe at a distance, said, in reference to the vapour and noise, 

 " Mosi oa tunya" (smoke does sound there). It was pre- 

 viously called Shongwe, the meaning of winch I could not 

 ascertain. The word for a " pot " resembles this, and it may mean 

 a seething caldron ; but I am not certain of it. Being persuaded 

 that Mr. Oswell and myself were the very first Europeans who 

 ever visited the Zambesi in the centre of the country, and that 

 this is the connecting link between the known and unknown 

 portions of that river, I decided to use the same liberty as the 

 Makololo did, and gave the only English name I have affixed to 

 any part of the country. No better proof of previous ignorance 

 of this river could be desired, than that an untravelled gentleman, 

 who had spent a great part of his life in the study of the geo- 

 graphy of Africa, and knew everything written on the subject 

 from the time of Ptolemy downwards, actually asserted in the 

 ' Athemeuni,' while I was coming up the Red Sea, that this 



