7$ A NATIVE PROPHET. 



Then, returning to the tribe quite emaciated, he excited 

 himself, as others do who pretend to the prophetic 

 afflatus, until he was in a state of ecstasy. These pretended 

 prophets commence their operations by violent action of 

 the voluntary muscles. Stamping, leaping, and shouting 

 in a peculiarly violent manner, or beating the ground 

 with a club, they induce a kind of fit, and while in it pre- 

 tend that their utterances are unknown to themselves. 

 Tlapdne, pointing eastwards, said, " There, Sebituane, I 

 behold a fire ; shun it ; it is a fire which may scorch thee. 

 The gods say, go not thither." Then, turning to the west, 

 he said, " I see a city and a nation of black men — men of 

 the water ; their cattle are red ; thine own tribe, Sebi- 

 tuane, is perishing, and will be all consumed ; thou wilt 

 govern black men, and, when thy warriors have captured 

 red cattle, let not the owners be killed ; they are thy 

 future tribe — they are thy city ; let them be spared to 

 cause thee to build. And thou, Ramosinii, thy village 

 will perish utterly. If Mokari removes from that village 

 he will perish first, and thou, Ramosinii, wilt be the last 

 to die." Concerning himself he added, " The gods have 

 caused other men to drink water, but to me they have 

 given bitter water of the chukuru (rhinoceros). They 

 call me away myself. I cannot stay much longer." 



This vaticination, which loses much in the translation, 

 I have given rather fully, as it shows an observant mind. 

 The policy recommended was wise, and the deaths of the 

 " senoga " and of the two men he had named, added to 

 the destruction of their village, having all happened soon 

 after, it is not wonderful that Sebituane followed implicitly 

 the warning voice. The fire pointed to was evidently the 

 Portuguese fire-arms, of which he must have heard. 

 The black men referred to were the Barotse, or, as they 

 term themselves, Baloiana ; and Sebituane spared their 

 chiefs, even though they attacked him first. He had 

 ascended the Barotse valley, but was pursued by the 

 Matebele, as Mosilikatse never could forgive his former 

 defeats. They came up the river in a very large body. 

 Sebituane placed some goats on one of the large islands 

 of the Zambesi, as a bait to the warriors, and some men 

 in canoes to co-operate in the manoeuvre. When they 

 were all ferried over to the island, the canoes were 

 removed, and the Matebele found themselves completely 

 in a trap, being perfectly unable to swim. They sub- 



