372 SEMALEMBUE AND HIS PEOPLE. Cbap. XXVIII 



After leaving the elephant valley we passed through a very 

 beautiful but thinly inhabited country. The underlying rock 

 is trap, which is often seen tilted on its edge, or dipping 

 a little either to the north or south. The strike is generally 

 to the N.E., the direction we are going. About Losito we 

 found the trap had given place to hornblende schist, mica 

 schist, and various schoily rocks. We had now come into the 

 region in which the appearance of the rocks conveys the 

 impression of great force having acted along the bed of the 

 Zambesi. Indeed, from the manner in which the rocks have 

 been thrust away on both sides from its bed, I was led to the 

 belief that the power which formed the crack of the falls had 

 opened a bed for the river all the way from the falls to beyond 

 the gorge of Lupata. 



Passing the rivulet Losito, we reached, on the 18th, the 

 residence of Semalembue, situated at the bottom of the ranges 

 through which the Kafue finds a passage, and close to the 

 bank of that river. The Kafue is here upwards of 200 yards 

 wide, and full of hippopotami, the young of which may be 

 seen perched on the necks of their dams. At this point we 

 had reached about the same level as Linyanti. 



Semalembue paid us a visit soon after our arrival, and said 

 that he had often heard of me, and now that he had the 

 pleasure of seeing me he feared that I should sleep the first 

 night at his village hungry. This was considered the hand- 

 some way of introducing a present, for he then handed five or 

 six baskets of meal and maize, and an enormous one of ground- 

 nuts. Next morning he gave about twenty baskets more of 

 meal. I could make but a poor return for his kindness, but 

 he accepted my apologies politely, saying that he knew there 

 were no goods in the country from which I had come. 1 

 heard that Semalembue got a good deal of ivory from the sur- 

 rounding tribes, which he transmitted to other chiefs on the 

 Zambesi, receiving in return English cotton goods which came 

 from Mozambique by Babisa traders. My men here began to 

 sell their beads and other ornaments for cotton cloth. Sema- 

 lembue was accompanied by about forty people, all large men, 

 with a fine crop of wool on their heads, which is either drawn 

 all together up to the crown, and tied there in a large tapering 

 bunch, or else is twisted into little strings on one side, the 



