192 STRONG EASTERLY WINDS. CHAP. VII. 



right sort of education — the knowledge of pasture and 

 how to manage cattle. 



Strong easterly winds blow daily from noon till mid- 

 night, and continue till the October or November rains 

 set in. Whirlwinds, raising huge pillars of smoke from 

 burning grass and weeds, are common in the forenoon. 

 We were nearly caught in an immense one. It crossed 

 about twenty yards in front of us, the wind apparently 

 rushing into it from all points of the compass. Whirling 

 round and round in great eddies, it swept up hundreds of 

 feet into the air a continuous dense dark cloud of the 

 black pulverized soil, mixed with dried grass, off the 

 plain. Herds of the new antelopes, lechwe, and poku, 

 with the kokong, or gnus, and zebras stood gazing at us 

 as we passed. The mirage lifted them at times halfway 

 to the clouds, and twisted them and the clumps of palms 

 into strange unearthly forms. The extensive and rich 

 level plains by the banks, along the sides of which we 

 paddled, would support a vast population, and might be 

 easily irrigated from the Zambesi. If watered, they 

 would yield crops all the year round, and never suffer loss 

 by drought. The hippopotamus is killed here with long 

 lance-like spears. We saw two men, in a light canoe, 

 stealing noiselessly down on one of these animals thought 

 to be asleep; but it was on the alert, and they had 

 quickly to retreat. Comparatively few of these animals 

 now remain between Sesheke and the Falls, and they are 

 uncommonly wary, as it is certain death for one to be 

 caught napping in the daytime. 



On the 18th we entered Sesheke. The old town, now 

 in ruins, stands on the left bank of the river. The people 

 have built another on the same side, a quarter of a mile 

 higher up, since their headman Moriantsiane was put to 

 death for bewitching the chief with leprosy. Sekeletu 

 was on the right bank, near a number of temporary huts. 



