238 AI,I,IGA-T0RS — SUPERSTITION. 



The alligator, writhing in pain, left him, and he came 

 out with the deep marks of the reptile's teeth on his 

 thigh. Here the people have no antipathy to persons 

 who have met with such an adventure, but, in the Bamang- 

 wato and Bakwain tribes, if a man is either bitten or 

 even has had water splashed over him by the reptile's 

 tail, he is expelled his tribe. When on the Zouga we saw 

 one of the Bamangwato living among the Bayeiye, who 

 had the misfortune to have been bitten and driven out of 

 his tribe in consequence. Fearing that I would regard 

 him. with the same disgust which his countrymen profess 

 to feel, he would not tell me the cause of his exile, but the 

 Bayeiye informed me of it, and the scars of the teeth 

 were visible on his thigh. If the Bakwains happened to 

 go near an alligator they would spit on the ground, and 

 indicate its presence by saying, " Boleo ki bo " — " There 

 is sin." They imagine the mere sight of it would give 

 inflammation of the eyes ; and, though they eat the zebra 

 without hesitation, yet if one bites a man he is expelled 

 the tribe, and obliged to take his wife and family away 

 to the Kalahari. These curious relics of the animal- 

 worship of former times scarcely exist among the Makololo. 

 Sebituane acted on the principle, " Whatever is food for 

 men is food for me : " so no man is here considered 

 unclean. The B arotse appear inclined to pray to alligators 

 and eat them too, for when I wounded a water- antelope, 

 called mochose, it took to the water ; when near the other 

 side of the river an alligator appeared at its tail, and then 

 both sank together. Mashauana, who was nearer to it 

 than I, told me that, " though he had called to it to Itet 

 his meat alone, it refused to listen." One day we passed 

 some Barotse lads who had speared an alligator, and were 

 waiting in expectation of its floating soon after. The 

 meat has a strong musky odour, not at all inviting for 

 any one except the very hungry. 



When we had gone thirty or forty miles above I^ibonta 

 we sent eleven of our captives to the west to the chief 

 called Makoma with an explanatory message. This caused 

 some delay ; but as we were loaded with presents of food 

 from the Makololo, and the wild animals were in enormous 

 herds, we fared sumptuously. It was grievous, however, 

 to shoot the lovely creatures, they were so tame. With 

 but little skill in stalking, one could easily get within fifty 

 or sixty yards of them. There I lay, looking at the 



