Chap. X r I. NALIELE. 149 



The towns of the Barotso are not large. The mounds on 

 which they are built are small, and the people are necessarily 

 scattered to enable them to look after their cattle. Naliele, 

 the capital (la* 15° 24' 17" S., long. 2:j° 5' 54" E.), is erected 

 on an eminence which was thrown up by Santuru, a former 

 chief, and was his storehouse for grain. His own capital 

 stood about five hundred yards to the south, on a spot which 

 now makes part of the bed of the river. Only a few cubic 

 yards remain of a mound which it took the whole of his 

 people many years to erect. The same thing has happened 

 to another ancient site, Linangelo. It would seem, therefore, 

 that the river must here be wearing eastwards. A rise of ien 

 feet above the present low- water mark is the highest point the 

 stream ever attains. Two or three feet more would deluge 

 all the villages ; and though this never happens, the water 

 sometimes comes so near, that the people cannot moye outside 

 the walls of reeds which encircle their huts. 



Santuru, at whose ancient granary we were staying, was 

 a great hunter, and was fond of taming wild animals. His 

 people brought him, among other things, two young hip- 

 popotami. These animals gambolled in the river b}- day, but 

 never failed to go to Naliele for their suppers of milk and 

 meal. They were the wonder of the country till a stranger, 

 who came on a visit, saw them reclining in the sun, and 

 speared one of them under the idea that it was wild. The 

 same accident happened to one of the cats I had brought to 

 Sekeletu. A native, seeing a new kind of animal, killed it. 

 and brought the trophy to the chief, thinking that he had 

 made a remarkable discovery. This cut short the breed of 

 cats, of which, from the swarms of mice, we stood in great 

 need. 



The town or mound of Santuru's mother was shown to me : 

 which was the first sympton I observed of that greater regard 

 which is shown to the female sex in the districts to the north. 

 There are few or no cases of women being elevated to the 

 headships of towns south of this point. The Barotse showed 

 some relics of thein former chief, which evinced a greater 

 amount of the religious feeling than I had ever known .re- 

 played among Bechuanas. His more recent capital, Lilonda, 

 which was also built on an artificial mound, is covered with 



