Chap. XXIII. WINTERS IN THE INTERIOR. 30S 



present of meal, and the meat of an entire pallah. We here 

 slaughtered the last of the cows we had brought with us, and 

 we offered a leg of it to Bango ; but he informed us that 

 neither he nor his people ever partook of beef, as they looked 

 upon cattle as human, and living at home like men. Several 

 other tribes refuse to keep cattle, on the ground that oxen 

 bring enemies and war ; but this is the first instance I have 

 met with in which they have been refused as food when 

 offered by others. The fact of killing the pallahs for food 

 shows that the objection does not extend to meat in general. 



The little streams in this part of the country do not flow in 

 deep dells, nor were we troubled with the gigantic grasses 

 which annoyed our eyes on the banks of the streams before 

 we came to Cabango. The country here was quite flat, and 

 the people cultivated manioc very extensively. The villages 

 were small and numerous, an arrangement which is highly 

 popular among the Africans, inasmuch as the head-man of 

 every village, whether great or small, fancies himself a chief. 

 We had now entered again the country of the game ; and we saw 

 many chiefs coming from distant parts with the flesh of buffaloes 

 and antelopes as the tribute claimed by Bango. The country 

 was at this time covered with yellowish grass quite dry : 

 some of the bushes and trees were green ; and others were 

 shedding their leaves, the young buds pushing off the old 

 foliage. Trees, which in the south stand bare during the 

 winter months, have here but a short period of leaflessness. 

 Occasionally, however, a cold south wind comes up even as 

 far as Cabango, and spreads a wintry aspect on all the exposed 

 vegetation, scorching the tender shoots of the evergreen trees 

 on the south side, and killing the leaves of manioc, pumpkins, 

 and other tender plants. All parts of the interior of South 

 Africa have a distinct winter, varying in intensity with the 

 latitude. In the central parts of the Cape colony the cold is 

 often severe, and the ground covered with snow. At Kuru- 

 man snow seldom falls, but the frost is keen. There is frost 

 even as far as the Chobe, and a partial winter in the Barotse 

 valley ; but north of the Orange river cold and damp are 

 never combined : indeed, a shower of rain seldom foils during 

 winter, and hence the healthiness of the Bechuana climate. 

 From the Barotse valley northwards, it is questionable if it 



