€hap. XL DISTANT VIEW OF THE FALLS. 247 



Batoka by the name ndoka, does not exist here, though 

 buffaloes and elephants abound. 



A small trap in the path, baited with a mouse, to catch 

 spotted cats (F. Gfenetta), is usually the first indication 

 that we are drawing near to a village ; but when we get 

 within the sounds of pounding corn, cockcrowing, or the 

 merry shouts of children at play, we know that the huts 

 are but a few yards off, though the trees conceal them 

 from view. We reached, on the 4th of August, Moa- 

 chemba, the first of the Batoka villages which now owe 

 allegiance to Sekeletu, and could see distinctly with the 

 naked eye, in the great valley spread out before us, the 

 columns of vapour rising from the Victoria Falls, though 

 upwards of 20 miles distant. We were informed that, the rains 

 having failed tin's year, the corn crops had been lost, and 

 great scarcity and much hunger prevailed from Seskeke to 

 Linyanti. Some of the reports which the men had heard 

 from the Batoka of the hills concerning their families, 

 were here confirmed. Takelang's wife had been killed by 

 Mashotlane, the headman at the Falls, on a charge, as usual, 

 of witchcraft. Inchikola's two wives, believing him to be 

 dead, had married again ; and Masakasa was intensely dis- 

 gusted to hear that two years ago his friends, upon a report of 

 his death, threw his shield over the Falls, slaughtered all his 

 oxen, and held a species of wild Irish wake, in honour of his 

 memory : he said he meant to disown them, and to say, when 

 they come to salute him, " I am dead. I am not here. I belong 

 to another world, and should stink if I came among you." 



All the sad news we had previously heard, of the disastrous 

 results which followed the attempt of a party of missionaries, 

 under the Be v. H. Helmore, to plant the Gospel at Linyanti, 

 were here fully confirmed. Several of the missionaries and 



