fugitive: serfs. 231 



of his village, it being considered a crime among the 

 Makololo for any one to treat his people so ill, as to cause 

 them to run away from him.. He then passed us, and, 

 dreading the vengeance of Sekeletu for his crime, secretly 

 made his escape from Linyanti to Lake Ngami. He was 

 sent for, however, and the chief at the lake delivered him 

 up, on Sekeletu declaring that he had no intention of 

 punishing him otherwise than by scolding. He did not 

 even do that, as Sekobinyane was evidently terrified 

 enough, and also became ill through fear. 



The fugitive villagers remained only a few weeks with 

 their new master Masiko, and then tied back again, and 

 were received as if they had done nothing wrong. All 

 united in abusing the conduct of Sekobinyane, and no 

 one condemned the fugitives ; and the cattle, the use of 

 which they had previously enjoyed, never having been 

 removed from their village, they re-established themselves 

 with apparent gladness. 



This incident may give some idea of the serfdom of the 

 subject tribes, and, except that they are sometimes 

 punished for running away and other offences, I can add 

 nothing more by way of showing the true nature of this 

 form of servitude. 



Leaving Naliele, amidst abundance of good wishes for 

 the success of our expedition and hopes that we might 

 return accompanied with white traders, we began again 

 our ascent of the river. It was now beginning to rise, 

 though the rains had but just commenced in the valley. 

 The banks are low, but cleanly cut, and seldom sloping. 

 At low water they are from four to eight feet high, and 

 make the river always assume very much the aspect of a 

 canal. They are in some parts of whitish tenacious clay 

 with strata of black clay intermixed, and black loam in 

 sand, or pure sand stratified. As the river rises it is 

 always wearing to one side or the other, and is known 

 to have cut across from one bend to another, and to form 

 new channels. As we coast along the shore, pieces which 

 are undermined often fall in with a splash like that 

 caused by the plunge of an alligator, and endanger the 

 canoe. 



These perpendicular banks afford building-places to a 

 pretty bee-eater,* which loves to breed in society. The 



* Merops afi aster and M. bullockoides (Smith). 



