184 SACRED SPOTS. Chap. VII. 



hornbills and flocks of little black weavers flying across 

 from the mainland to the islands, and from the islands to 

 the points of the promontories and back again, but they 

 uniformly shunned the region of perpetual rain, occupied 

 by the evergreen grove. The sunshine, elsewhere in this 

 land so overpowering, never penetrates the deep gloom of 

 that shade. In the presence of the strange Mosi-oa-tunya, 

 we can sympathize with those who, when the world was 

 young, peopled earth, air, and river, with beings not of 

 mortal form. Sacred to what deity would be this awful 

 chasm and that dark grove, over which hovers an ever- 

 abiding " pillar of cloud " ? 



The ancient Batoka chieftains used Kazeruka, now 

 Garden Island, and Boaruka, the island further west, also 

 on the lip of the Falls, as sacred spots for worshipping the 

 Deity. It is no wonder that under the cloudy columns, and 

 near the brilliant rainbows, with the ceaseless roar of the 

 cataract, with the perpetual flow, as if pouring forth from 

 the hand of the Almighty, their souls should be filled with 

 reverential awe. It inspired wonder in the native mind 

 throughout the interior. Among the first questions asked 

 by Sebituane of Mr. Oswell and Dr. Livingstone, in 1851, 

 was, " Have you any smoke soundings in your country," 

 and " what causes the smoke to rise for ever so high out 

 of water ? " In that year its fame was heard 200 miles 

 off, and it was approached within two days ; but it was 

 seen by no European till 1855, when Dr. Livingstone 

 visited it on his way to the East Coast. Being then 

 accompanied as far as this Fall by Sekeletu and 200 fol- 

 lowers, his stay was necessarily short ; and the two days 

 there were employed in observations for fixing the geo- 

 graphical position of the place, and turning the showers, 

 that at times sweep from the columns of vapour across the 

 island, to account, in teaching the Makololo arboriculture, 

 and making that garden from which the natives named 



