Chap. XXVI. SAVAGE CUSTOMS OF BATOKA 34V 



while our course is more to the N.E. The country is rougn 

 and rocky, the soil being red sand, which is covered with 

 beautiful green trees yielding an abundance of wild fruits. 

 The father of Moyara was a powerful chief, but the son now 

 sits among the ruins of the town, with four or five wives and 

 very few people. At his hamlet I counted fifty-four human 

 skulls hung on stakes. These were Matebele whom Moyara's 

 father had overpowered when they were suffering from sick- 

 ness and famine. When looking at these skulls I remarked 

 to Moyara that many of them were those of mere boys, and 

 I asked why his father had killed boys. " To show his 

 fierceness," was the answer. When I told him that this 

 probably would ensure his own death if the Matebele came 

 again, he replied, " When I hear of their coming I shall hide 

 the bones." He was evidently proud of these trophies of his 

 father's ferocity, and I was assured by other Batoka that few 

 strangers ever returned from a visit to this quarter. 



When about to leave Moyara on the 25th he brought a root 

 which, when pounded and sprinkled over the oxen, is believed 

 to keep off the tsetse. He promised to show me the plant if I 

 would give him an ox ; but as we were travelling, and could 

 not afford the time required for the experiment, I deferred the 

 investigation till I returned. It is probably but an evanescent 

 remedy, and capable of rendering the cattle safe for only one 

 night. Moyara, who is quite a dependant of the Makololo, 

 was compelled by my party to carry a tusk for them. W 7 hen 

 I relieved him he poured forth a shower of thanks at being 

 allowed to go back to sleep beneath his skutls. Next day we 

 came to Namilanga, where there is a well beneath a very 

 large fig-tree, the shade of which renders the water delight- 

 fully cool. This well received its name, meaning "the Well 

 of Joy," from the fact that in former times marauding parties, 

 in returning with cattle, sat down here and were regaled with 

 boyaloa, music, and the lullilooing of the women from the 

 adjacent towns. 



All the surrounding countiy was formerly densely peopled, 

 though now desolate and still. The old head-man of this 

 place told us that when he was a child his father went to 

 Bambala (meaning probably Dambarari, close to Zumbo), 

 where white traders lived, and returned when he had become 



