INTERVIEW WITH KATEMA. 299 



him. from Loanda, saying not a large thing, but something 

 small. He laughed heartily at the limitation, and replied, 

 • ' Everything of the white people would be acceptable, 

 and he would receive anything thankfully ; but the coat 

 he had then on was old, and he would like another." 

 I introduced the subject of the Bible, but one of the old 

 councillors broke in, told all he had picked up from the 

 Mambari, and glided off into several other subjects. It 

 is a misery to speak through an interpreter, as I was now 

 forced to do. With a body of men like mine, composed 

 as they were of six different tribes, and all speaking the 

 language of the Bechuanas, there was no difficulty in 

 communicating on common subjects with any tribe we 

 came to ; but doling out a story in which they felt no 

 interest, and which I understood only sufficiently well to 

 perceive that a mere abridgment was given, was un- 

 commonly slow work. Neither could Katema's attention 

 be arrested, except by compliments, of which they have 

 always plenty to bestow as well as receive. We were 

 strangers, and knew that, as Makololo, we had not the 

 best of characters, yet his treatment of us was wonderfully 

 good and liberal. 



I complimented him on the possession of cattle, and 

 pleased him by telling him how he might milk the cows. 

 He has a herd of about thirty, really splendid animals, all 

 reared from two which he bought from the Balobale when 

 he was young. They are generally of a white colour and 

 are quite wild, running off with graceful ease like a herd 

 of elands on the approach of a stranger. They excited 

 the unbounded admiration of the Makololo, and clearly 

 proved that the country was well adapted for them. 

 When Katema wishes to slaughter one, he is obliged to 

 shoot it as if it were a buffalo. Matiamvo is said to 

 possess a herd of cattle in a similar state. I never could 

 feel certain as to the reason why they do not all possess 

 cattle in a country containing such splendid pasturage. 



As Katema did not offer an ox, as would have been done 

 by a Makololo or Caffre chief, we slaughtered one ot our 

 own, and all of us were delighted to get a meal of meat, 

 after subsisting so long on the light porridge and green 

 maize of Londa. On occasions of slaughtering an animal, 

 some pieces of it are in the fire before the skin is all removed 

 from the body. A frying-pan full of these pieces having 

 been got quickly ready, my men crowded about their 



