CUMATIC CONDITIONS. 429 



refuse to keep cattle, though not to eat them when offered 

 "by others, because, say they, oxen bring enemies and war ; 

 but this is the first instance I have met with in which they 

 have been refused as food. The fact of killing the pallahs 

 for food, shows that the objection does not extend to 

 meat in general. 



The little streams in this part of the country did not 

 flow in deep dells, nor were we troubled with the gigantic 

 grasses, which annoyed our eyes on the slopes of the 

 streams before we came to Cabango. The country was 

 quite flat, and the people cultivated manioc very exten- 

 sively. There is no large collection of the inhabitants in 

 any one spot. The ambition of each seems to be to have 

 his own little village ; and we see many coming from 

 distant parts with the flesh of buffaloes and antelopes as 

 the tributes claimed by Bango. We have now entered 

 again the country of the game ; but they are so exceed- 

 ingly shy that we have not yet seen a single animal. The 

 arrangement into many villages, pleases the Africans 

 vastly, for every one who has a few nuts under him, feels 

 himself in some measure to be a chief. The country at this 

 time is covered with yellowish grass quite dry. Some of the 

 bushes and trees are green ; others are shedding their 

 leaves, the young buds pushing off the old foliage. Trees, 

 which in the south stand bare during the winter months, 

 have here but a short period of leaflessness. Occasionally, 

 however, a cold north wind comes up even as far as 

 Cabango, and spreads a wintry aspect on all the exposed 

 vegetation. The tender shoots of the evergreen trees on 

 the south side become as if scorched ; the leaves of manioc, 

 pumpkins, and other tender plants, are killed ; while the 

 same kinds, in spots sheltered by forests, continue green 

 through the whole year. All the interior of South Africa 

 has a distinct winter of cold, varying in intensity with the 

 latitudes. In the central parts of the Cape colony, the 

 cold in the winter is often severe, and the ground is covered 

 with snow. At Kuruman snow seldom falls, but the frost 

 is keen. There is frost even as far as the Chobe, and a 

 partial winter in the Barotse valley ; but beyond the 

 Orange River we never have cold and damp combined. 

 Indeed a shower of rain seldom or never falls during winter, 

 and hence the healthiness of the Bechuana climate. 

 From the Barotse valley northwards, it is questionable if 

 it ever freezes j but during the prevalence of the south 



