5 8 THE ZOUGA AND THE NGAMI. 



'The Zouga is broad and deep when it leaves the Tamu- 

 -nak'le, but becomes gradually narrower as you descend 

 about two hundred miles ; there it flows into Kumadau, a 

 .small lake about three or four miles broad and twelve long. 

 The water, which higher up begins to flow in April, does 

 not make much progress in filling this lake till the end of 

 June. In September the rivers cease to flow. When the 

 supply has been more than usually abundant, a little water 

 flows beyond Kumadau, in the bed first seen by us on the 

 4th of July ; if the quantity were larger, it might go further 

 in the dry rocky bed of the Zouga, since seen still further 

 to the east. The water supply of this part of the river 

 system, as will be more fully explained further on, takes 

 place in channels prepared for a much more copious flow. 

 It resembles a deserted Bastern garden, where all the 

 embankments and canals for irrigation can be traced, but 

 where, the main dam and sluices having been allowed to 

 get out of repair, only a small portion can be laid under 

 "water. In the case of the Zouga the channel is perfect, 

 but water enough to fill the whole channel never comes 

 -down ; and before it finds its way much beyond Kumadau, 

 the upper supply ceases to run, and the rest becomes 

 ^evaporated. The higher parts of its bed even are much 

 hroader and more capacious than the lower towards 

 Kumadau. The water is not absorbed so much as lost in 

 filling up an empty channel, from which it is to be removed 

 "by the air and sun. There is, I am convinced, no such 

 i:hing in the country as a river running into sand and 

 becoming lost. This phenomenon, so convenient for 

 ■geographers, haunted my fancy for years ; but I have 

 failed in discovering anything except a most insignificant 

 .approach to it. 



My chief object in coming to the lake was to visit 

 Sebituane, the great chief of the Makololo, who was 

 reported to live some two hundred miles beyond. We had 

 now come to a half -tribe of the Bamangwato, called 

 Bataulna. Their chief was a young man named Lechu- 

 latebe. Sebituane had conquered his father Moremi, and 

 Xechuiatebe received part of his education while a captive 

 among the Bayeiye. His uncle, a sensible man, ransomed 

 him ; and, having collected a number of f amilies together, 

 abdicated the chieftainship in favour of his nephew. As 

 Xechuiatebe had just come into power, he imagined that 

 the proper way of showing his abilities was to act directly 



