264 



MOLELE'S VILLAGE. 



Chap. XIII. 



employment is sought — how hard the battle of life ; while so 

 much of this fair earth remains unoccupied, and not put to the 

 benevolent purpose for which it was intended by its Maker. 



We spent Sunday, the 12th, at the village of Molele, a 

 tall old Batoka, who was proud of having formerly been a 

 great favourite with Sebituane. In coming hither we passed 

 through patches of forest abounding in all sorts of game. 

 The elephants' tusks, placed over graves, are now allowed 

 to decay, and the skulls, which the former Batoka stuck 

 on poles to ornament their villages, not being renewed, 

 now crumble into dust. Here the famine, of which we had 

 heard, became apparent, Molele's people being employed 

 in digging up the tsitla root out of the marshes, and cutting 

 out the soft core of the young palm-trees, for food. 



The village, situated on the side of a wooded ridge, com- 

 mands an extensive view of a great expanse of meadow and 

 marsh lying along the bank of the river. On these holmes 

 herds of buffaloes and waterbucks daily graze in security, as 

 they have in the reedy marshes a refuge into which they 

 can run on the approach of danger. The pretty little 

 tianyane or ourebi is abundant further on,* and herds 



* From being entirely unknown in 

 the Bechuana country south of this, 

 it was thought to be a new antelope, 

 and is so mentioned by Dr. Living- 

 stone ; but the description of the 

 appearance, gait, alarm-call, and habits 

 (given by another African traveller, 

 Mr. W. F. Webb) of the ourebi, as 

 found in Natal, leaves no doubt but 

 that the two animals are identical. 

 Having made this mistake himself, 

 Dr. Livingstone is quite disposed to 

 be lenient to others ; but would re- 

 spectfully suggest a doubt, whether 

 it be advisable to multiply names 



when there is no more variation than 

 a bend in the shape of the horns, or 

 a slight difference in the colour of 

 the hair. An eland for instance, 

 described, from specimens shot on 

 these very plains in 1853, as retain- 

 ing in maturity the stripes which 

 appear on the young of all elands in 

 the Kalahari Desert, ten years later 

 has been rediscovered as djikijunlca, 

 named from specimens seen in West 

 Africa, This has been the case also 

 with the nakong or nzoe, and the 

 reason assigned in this case was its 

 being "faintly spotted." A young 



