190 WATER ANTELOPES. 



off a hundred miles on an errand, and expected to run all 

 the way. 



Sekeletu is always accompanied by his own Mopato, a 

 number of young men of his own age. When he sits down 

 they crowd around him ; those who are nearest eat out 

 of the same dish, for the Makololo chiefs pride themselves 

 on eating with their people. He eats a little, then beckons 

 his neighbours to partake. When they have done so, he 

 perhaps beckons to some one at a distance to take a 

 share ; that person starts forward, seizes the pot, and 

 removes it to his own companions. The comrades of 

 Sekeletu, wishing to imitate him in riding on my old 

 horse, leaped on the backs of a number of half-broken 

 Batoka oxen as they ran, but, having neither saddle nor 

 bridle, the number of tumbles they met with was a source 

 of much amusement to the rest. Troops of leches, or, as 

 they are here called, " lechwes," appeared feeding quite 

 heedlessly all over the flats ; they exist here in prodigious 

 herds, although the numbers of them and of the " nakong " 

 that are killed annually, must be enormous. Both are 

 water antelopes, and, when the lands we now tread upon 

 are flooded, they betake themselves to the mounds I have 

 alluded to. The Makalaka, who are most expert in the 

 management of their small, thin, light canoes, come gently 

 towards them ; the men stand upright in the canoe, 

 though it is not more than fifteen or eighteen inches wide, 

 and about fifteen feet long ; their paddles, ten feet in 

 length, are of a kind of wood called molompi, very light, 

 yet as elastic as ash. With these they either punt or 

 paddle, according to the shallowness or depth of the 

 water. When they perceive the antelopes beginning to 

 move they increase their speed, and pursue them with 

 great velocity ; they make the water dash away from the 

 gunwale, and, though the leche goes off by a succession of 

 prodigious bounds, its feet appearing to touch the bottom 

 at each spring, they manage to spear great numbers of 

 them. 



The nakong often shares a similar fate. This is a new 

 species, rather smaller than the leche, and, in shape, has 

 more of paunchiness than any antelope I ever saw. Its 

 gait closely resembles the gallop of a dog when tired. 

 The hair is long and rather sparse, so that it is never 

 sleek-looking. It is of a greyish-brown colour, and has 

 horns twisted in the manner of a koodoo, but much 



