310 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



pleased or not accordingly. The owners of a large canoe refused to sell it 

 because it belonged to the spirits of their fathers, who helped them in killing 

 the hippopotamus. 



" Some of the Batoka chiefs must have had a good deal of enterprise. 

 The lands of one in the western part of the country lay on the Zambesi, 

 which protected him on the South ; on the East and North was an impassable 

 reedy marsh, filled with water all the year round, leaving only his West border 

 unprotected and open to invasion. He conceived the bold project of digging 

 a broad and deep canal, nearly a mile in length, from the West end of the 

 reedy river to the Zambesi, and actually carried it into execution ; thus 

 forming a large island, on which his cattle grazed in safety, and his corn 

 ripened from year to year secure from all marauders. 



" Another chief, who died a number of years ago, believed that he had 

 discovered a remedy for tsetse-bitten cattle. His son showed us the plant, 

 which was new to our botanist, and likewise told us how the medicine was 

 prepared. The bark of the root is dried, and — what will be specially 

 palatable to our homceopathist friends — a dozen tsetse are caught, dried, and 

 ground with the bark to a fine powder. The mixture is administered 

 internally, and the cattle are also smoked, by burning the rest - of the plant 

 under them. The treatment is continued some weeks, as often as symptoms 

 of the poison show themselves. This, he frankly said, will not cure all the 

 bitten cattle, for cattle, and men too, die in spite of medicine ; but should a 

 herd by accident stray into a tsetse district and get bitten, by this medicine 

 of Kampakampa, his father, some of them could be saved, while without it 

 all would be sure to die. 



"A remarkably prominent feature in the Batoka character is their 

 enlarged hospitality. No stranger is ever allowed to suffer hunger. They 

 invariably sent to our sleeping-places large presents of the finest white meal, 

 with fat capons " to give it a relish," and great pots of beer to comfort our 

 hearts, with pumpkins, beans, and tobacco ; so that, as they said, we ' should 

 not sleep hungry or thirsty.' 



" In travelling from the Kafue to Sinamanes, we often passed several 

 villages in the course of a day's march. In the evening, deputations arrived 

 from those villages at which we could not sleep, with liberal presents of food. 

 It evidently pained them to have strangers pass them without partaking of their 

 hospitality. Repeatedly were we hailed from huts, asked to wait a moment 

 and drink a little beer, which they brought with alacrity. 



" When we halted for the night, it was no uncommon thing for these 

 people to prepare our camp. Entirely of their own accord, some with their 

 hoes quickly smoothed the ground for our beds ; others brought bundles of 

 grass and spread it carefully over the spot ; some with their small axes 

 speedily made a brush-fence round to shield us from the wind ; and if, as 



