258 SACRED SPOTS. Chap. XII. 



with all the glowing colours of double or treble rainbows, 

 The evening sun, from a hot yellow sky, imparts a sul- 

 phureous hue, and gives one the impression that the yawn- 

 ing gulf might resemble the mouth of the bottomless pit. No 

 bird sits and sings on the branches of the grove of perpetual 

 showers, or ever builds its nest there. We saw hornbills, 

 and flocks of little black weavers flying across from the 

 mainland, to the islands, and from the islands to the points 

 of the promontories and back again, but they uniformly 

 shunned the region of perpetual rain, occupied by the 

 evergreen grove. The sunshine, elsewhere in this land so 

 overpowering, never penetrates the deep gloom of that shade. 

 In the presence of the strange Mosi-oa-tunya, we can sym- 

 pathize with those who, when the world was young, peopled 

 earth, air, and river, with beings not of mortal form. Sacred 

 to what deity would be this awful chasm and that dark 

 grove, over which hovers an ever-abiding " pillar of cloud ? " 



The ancient Bat oka Chieftains used Kazeruka, now Garden 

 Island, and Boaruka, the island further west, also on the lip 

 of the Falls, as sacred spots for worsliipping the Deity. It 

 is no wonder that under the cloudy columns, and near the 

 brilliant rainbows, with the ceaseless roar of the cataract, with 

 the perpetual flow, as if pouring forth from the hand of the 

 Almighty, their souls should be filled with reverential awe. 

 It inspired wonder in the native mind throughout the interior. 

 Among the first questions asked by Sebituane of Mr. Oswell 

 and Dr. Livingstone, in 1851, was, "Have you any smoke 

 soundings in your country," and " what causes the smoke to 

 rise for ever so high out of water ? " In that year its fame 

 was heard 200 miles off, and it was approached within two 

 days ; but it was seen by no European till 1855, when Dr. 

 Livingstone visited it on his way to the East Coast. Being 



