198 INTELLIGENCE OF THE MAKOLOLO. Chap. VII. 



were convinced that, if they remained in the lowlands, a 

 few years would suffice to cut off all the real Makololo ; 

 they came originally from the healthy South, near the 

 confluence of the Likwa and Namagari, where fever is 

 almost unknown, and its ravages had been as frightful 

 among them here, as amongst Europeans on the Coast- 

 Sebituane's sister described its first appearance among 

 the tribe, after their settling in the Barotse Valley on 

 the Zambesi. Many of them were seized with a shivering 

 sickness, as if from excessive cold ; they had never seen 

 the like before. They made great fires, and laid the 

 shivering wretches down before them ; but, pile on wood 

 as they might, they could not raise heat enough to drive 

 the cold out of the bodies of the sufferers, and they 

 shivered on till they died. But, though all preferred the 

 highlands, they were afraid to go there, lest the Matebele 

 should come and rob them of their much-loved cattle. 

 Sebituane, with all his veterans, could not withstand that 

 enemy ; and how could they be resisted, now that most 

 of the brave warriors were dead ? The young men would 

 break, and run away the moment they saw the terrible 

 Matebele; being as much afraid of them as the black 

 conquered tribes are of the Makololo. " But if the Doctor 

 and his wife," said the chiefs and counsellors, " would 

 come and live with us, we would remove to the highlands 

 at once, as Moselekatse would not attack a place where 

 the daughter of his friend, Moffat, was living." 



The Makololo are by far the most intelligent and 

 enterprising of the tribes we have met. None but brave 

 and daring men remained long with Sebituane, his stern 

 discipline soon eradicated cowardice from his army. Death 

 was the inevitable doom of the coward. If the chief saw 

 a man running away from the fight, he rushed after him 

 with amazing speed, and cut him down ; or waited till he 

 returned to the town, and then summoned the deserter 



