200 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



the attempt to go farther, and crawled under a tree for shelter. After the 

 excessive heat of the day one is peculiarly sensitive to cold at night. The 

 chief's blanket had fortunately not gone on ; he covered me with it, and 

 rested himself on the cold, wet ground until the morning. If such men must 

 perish before the white race by an immutable law of heaven, we must seem 

 to be under the same sort of 'terrible necessity' in our 'Kaffre wars' as the 

 American professor of chemistry said he was when he dismembered the man 

 whom he murdered." 



On the island of Kalai, they found the grave of Sekote, a Batoka chief, 

 who had been conquered by Sebituane, and had retreated to this place, where 

 he died. The ground near the grave was garnished by human skulls, mounted 

 on poles, and a large heap of the crania of hippopotami — the tusks being 

 placed on one side. The grave was ornamented with seventy large elephants' 

 tusks, planted round it with the points inwards, forming an ivory canopy; and 

 thirty more were placed over the graves of his relatives. As they neared the 

 point from which the party intended to strike off to the north-east from the 

 river, Livingstone determined to visit the falls of Mosioatunya, known as the 

 falls of Victoria since his visit. He had often heard of these falls from the 

 Makololo. None of them had visited them, but many of them had been near 

 enough to hear the roar of the waters and see the cloud of spray which hangs 

 over them. The literal meaning of the Makololo name for them is, "smoke 

 does sound there," or " sounding smoke." 



He visited them twice on this occasion, the last time along with Sekeletu, 

 whose curiosity had been aroused by his description of their magnificence. 

 Just where the sounding smoke of which Sebituane and the Makololo had told 

 him, rises up for several hundred feet into the sky, and is visible for over 

 twenty miles — a spectacle of ever changing form and colour — the mighty 

 stream, nearly a mile in width, plunges in a clear and unbroken mass into a 

 rent in the basaltic rock which forms the bed of the river and the low hills 

 which bound the river in front and on either side for a considerable distance 

 of its course. This chasm is from eighty to a hundred feet in width, and of 

 unknown depth, the thundering roar of the falling waters being heard for a 

 distance of many miles. The throbbing of the solid ground, caused by the 

 immense weight and force of the falling water is felt at a great distance from 

 the tremendous chasm in which the great river is engulfed. 



After a descent of several yards, the hitherto unbroken mass of water 

 presents the appearance of drifted snow, from which jets of every form leap 

 out upon the opposite side of the chasm. For about a hundred feet, its 

 descent can be traced to where it reaches the seething surface of the water 

 below ; from which it arises, in jets of water like steam. A dense smoke cloud 

 of spray which, descending on all sides like rain, wets the on-looker to the 

 skin, maintains a constant green verdure within the reach of its influence. 



