Chap. XXV. COLONY OF BIRDS. 327 



goods were exhausted. They saw that I had been exerting 

 myself for their benefit alone, and even my men remarked, 

 " Though we return as poor as we went, we have not gone in 

 vain." They began immediately to collect tusks of hippopo- 

 tami and other ivory for a second journey. (62) 



CHAPTER XXV. 



NaLIELE. — GONYE. — LlNYANTI. — THE CHIEF SEKELETU. — N0TICE8 01 



the Makololo. — Diseases, climate, &c. 



On the 31st of July we parted with our kind Libonta friend* 

 We planted some of our palm-tree seeds in different villages of 

 this valley, but unfortunately they were always destroyed by 

 the mice. At Chitlane's village we collected the young of a 

 colony of the linkololo (Anastomus lamalligerus), a black lono-- 

 legged bird of gregarious habits, somewhat larger than a crow, 

 which lives on shellfish (Ampullarid), and breeds among the 

 reeds. Its haunts, being unchanged from year to year, are 

 well known, and belong to the chiefs, who at particular times 

 of the year gather most of the young. The produce of this 

 " harvest," as they call it, which was presented to me, was a 

 hundred and seventy-five unfledged birds. Double this 

 amount would have been obtained if they had been gathered 

 at an earlier period. The old ones look lean and scraggy, 

 but the young are very fat, and when roasted are esteemed 

 one of the dainties of the Barotse valley. In presents of this 

 kind, it is customary for the person to whom they are pre- 

 sented to entertain his friends with them. We generally 

 slaughtered each ox at the village where it was presented, 

 and then our friends enjoyed themselves with us. 



The village of Chitlane is situated, like all others in the 

 Barotse valley, on an eminence above the level of the floods ; 

 this last year the water approached nearer to an entire 

 submergence of the valley than on any previous occasion 

 within the memory of man. Great numbers of people were 

 now suffering from sickness, which always prevails during the 

 subsidence of the waters ; and I found much demand for tie 



2 B 



