72 MEETING WITH SEBITUANE. 



the animals that are about to pass through a tsetse 

 district ; but this, though it proves a preventive at the 

 time, is not permanent. There is no cure yet known for 

 the disease. A careless herdsman allowing a large number 

 of cattle to wander into a tsetse district loses all except the 

 calves ; and Sebituane once lost nearly the entire cattle 

 of his tribe — very many thousands — by unwittingly 

 coming under its influence. Inoculation does not insure 

 immunity, as animals which have been slightly bitten in 

 one year may perish by a greater number of bites in the 

 next ; but it is probable that with the increase of guns 

 the game will rjerish, as has happened in the south, and 

 the tsetse, deprived of food, may become extinct simulta- 

 neously with the larger animals. 



The Makololo whom we met on the Chobe were delighted 

 to see us ; and as their chief Sebituane was about twenty 

 miles down the river, Mr. Oswell and I proceeded in 

 canoes to his temporary residence. He had come from 

 the Bardtse town of Naliele down to Sesheke as soon as 

 he heard of white men being in search of him, and now 

 came one hundred miles more to bid us welcome into 

 his country. He was upon an island with all his principal 

 men around him, and engaged in singing when we arrived. 

 It was more like church music than the sing-song e e e, 

 se ae ae, of the Bechuanas in the south ; and they con- 

 tinued the tune for some seconds after we approached. 

 We informed him of the difficulties we had encountered , 

 and how glad we were that they were all at an end by 

 at last reaching his presence. He signified his own joy, 

 .and added, " Your cattle are all bitten by the tsetse and 

 will certainly die ; but never mind, I have oxen and will 

 give you as many as you need." We, in our ignorance, 

 then thought that, as so few tsetse had bitten them, no 

 great mischief would follow. He then presented us with 

 an ox and a jar of honey as food, and handed us over to 

 the care of Mahale, who had headed the party to Kolobeng, 

 and would now fain appropriate to himself the whole 

 credit of our coming. Prepared skins of oxen as soft 

 as cloth were given to cover us through the night ; and 

 as nothing could be returned to this chief, Mahale became 

 the owner of them. Long before it was day, Sebituane 

 came, and sitting down by the fire, which was lighted for 

 our benefit behind the hedge where we lay, he narrated 

 the difficulties he had himself experienced, when a young 



