262 NAMBOWE AND HIS WIVES. Chap. XIII. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 



Conditiou of fugitives and captives in native tribes — Servitude in the interior 

 light as compared to slavery on the coast — Molele's village — Scarcity of 

 food — Tianyane identical with Ourebi — The Poku — Dr. Livingstone con- 

 sulted on the value of horses — Mparira, village of Mokompa — Stingless 

 bee — ■ Take canoe for Sesheke — Sekeletu's attempt at enforcing quarantine — 

 The Chiefs' messengers — " The argument " for learning to read — " Free 

 pratique " — Native instructions — The cattle-post school — Sesheke old and 

 new town — Sekeletu — Nothing like beef — " Beef with and beef without " 



— Visitors — Sekeletu's leprosy and its attendant evils — Disease pronounced 

 incurable by native doctors — Taken in hand by a doctress — Handed over to 

 Drs. Livingstone and Kirk — Improvement of patient — Description of disease 

 — Tea and preserved fruits from Benguela — No ivory, no slave-trade — 

 Effect of Sekeletu's orders in closing slave-market — Fashion — Horse-dealing 



— Peculiar style of racing — " The household cavalry " — Produce of interior 

 in grain — No vegetables — No fruit — Mr. Baldwin, and Mr. Helmore's 

 party — Sad breaking up of the Mission — Fever, not poison, the cause of 

 deaths. 



Marching up the river, we crossed the Lekone at its 

 confluence, about eight miles above the island Kalai, and 

 went on to a village opposite the Island Chundu. Nambowe, 

 the headman, is one of the Matebele or Zulus, who 

 have had to flee from the anger of Moselekatse, to take 

 refuge with the Makololo. During our interview, his six 

 handsome wives came and sat behind him. He had only 

 two children. The ladies were amused with our question 

 whether they ever quarrelled, to which the monster answered, 

 " Oh, yes, they are always quarrelling amongst themselves." 

 Among the coast tribes a fugitive is almost always sold, but 

 here a man retains the same rank he held in his own tribe. 

 The children of captives even have the same privileges as the 

 children of their captors. The Rev. T. M. Thomas, a mis- 



