220 THE BAWE COUNTRY. Chap. XI. 



Kafue reminds us a little of the Shire, flowing between 

 steep banks, with fertile land on both sides. It is a smaller 

 river, and has less current. Here it seems to come from 

 the west. The headman of the village, near which we en- 

 camped, brought a present of meal, fowls, and sweet potatoes. 

 They have both the red and white varieties of this potato. 

 We have, on several occasions during this journey, felt the want 

 of vegetables, in a disagreeable craving which our diet of meat 

 and native meal could not satisfy. It became worse and worse 

 till we got a meal of potatoes, which allayed it at once. A 

 great scarcity of vegetables prevails in these parts of Africa. 

 The natives collect several kinds of wild plants in the woods, 

 which they use no doubt for the purpose of driving off cravings 

 similar to those we experienced. 



Owing to the strength of the wind, and the cranky state 

 of the canoes, it was late in the afternoon of the 11th 

 before our party was ferried over the Kafue. After cross- 

 ing, we were in the Bawe country. Fishhooks here, of 

 native workmanship, were observed to have barbs like the 

 European hooks : elsewhere the point of the hook is merely 

 bent in towards the shank, to have the same effect in keep- 

 ing on the fish as the barb. We slept near a village a short 

 distance above the ford. The people here are of Batoka 

 origin, the same as many of our men, and call themselves 

 Batonga (independents) or Balengi, and their language only 

 differs slightly from that of the Bakoa, who live between the 

 two rivers Kafue and Loangwa. The paramount Chief of 

 the district lives to the west of this place, and is called 

 Nchomokela — an hereditary title : the family bury ing-pl ace 

 is on a small hill near this village. The women salute us 

 by clapping their hands and lullilooing as Ave enter and 

 leave a village, and the men, as they think, respectfully clap 



