232 ORDEAL OF MUAVE. Chap. XI. 



■unusual seriousness marked their demeanour. Shortly before 

 our arrival they had been accused of witchcraft ; conscious of 

 innocence, they accepted the ordeal, and undertook to 

 drink the poisoned muave. For this purpose they made 

 a journey to the sacred hill of Nchomokela, on which repose 

 the bodies of their ancestors ; and, after a solemn appeal to 

 the unseen spirits to attest the innocence of their children, 

 they swallowed the muave, vomited, and were therefore de- 

 clared not guilty. It is evident that they believe that the 

 soul has a continued existence ; and that the spirits of the de- 

 parted know what those they have left behind them are doing, 

 and are pleased or not, according as their deeds are good or evil ; 

 this belief is universal. The owner of a large canoe refused to 

 sell it, because it belonged to the spirit of his father, who helped 

 him when he killed the hippopotamus. Another, when the bar- 

 gain for his canoe was nearly completed, seeing a large serpent 

 on a branch of the tree overhead, refused to complete the sale, 

 alleging that this was the spirit of his father come to protest 

 against it. 



Some of the Batoka Chiefs must have been men of consider- 

 able enterprise ; the land of one, in the western part of this 

 country, was protected by the Zambesi on the S., and on 

 the N. and E. lay an impassable reedy marsh, filled with 

 water all the year round, leaving only his western border 

 open to invasion : he conceived the idea of digging a broad 

 and deep canal nearly a mile in length, from the reedy 

 marsh to the Zambesi, and, having actually carried the scheme 

 into execution, he formed a large island, on which his cattle 

 grazed in safety, and his corn ripened from year to year 

 secure from all marauders. 



Another Chief, who died a number of years ago, believed 

 that he had discovered a remedy for tsetse-bitten cattle ; his 



