432 VAI^EY OF THK I,OMBTO. 



feet deep, but usually contains much less water than this, 

 for there are fishing- weirs placed right across it. Iyike all 

 the African rivers in this quarter, it has morasses on each 

 bank, yet the valley in which it winds, when seen from 

 the high lands above, is extremely beautiful. This 

 valley is about the fourth of a mile wide, and it was easy 

 to fancy the similarity of many spots on it to the goodly 

 manors in our own country, and feel assured that there 

 was still ample territory left for an indefinite increase 

 of the world's population. The villages are widely 

 apart, and difficult of access, from the paths being so 

 covered with tall grass, that even an ox can scarcely 

 follow the track. The grass cuts the feet of the men ; 

 yet we met a woman with a little child, and a girl, wending 

 their way home with loads of manioc. The sight of a 

 white man always infuses a tremor into their dark bosoms, 

 and in every case of the kind, they appeared immensely 

 relieved when I had fairly passed, without having sprung 

 upon them. In the villages, the dogs run away with 

 their tails between their legs, as if they had seen a lion. 

 The women peer from behind the walls till he comes 

 near them, and then hastily dash into the house. When 

 a little child, unconscious of danger, meets you in the 

 street, he sets up a scream at the apparition, and conveys 

 the impression that he is not far from going into fits. 

 Among the Bechuanas, I have been obliged to reprove 

 the women for making a hobgoblin of the white man, 

 and telling their children that they would send for him to 

 bite them. 



Having passed the I^oembwe, we were in a more open 

 country, with every few hours a small valley, through 

 which ran a little rill in the middle of a bog. These were 

 always difficult to pass, and being numerous, kept the 

 lower part of the person constantly wet. At different 

 points in our course we came upon votive offerings to 

 the Barimo. These usually consisted of food ; and every 

 deserted village still contained the idols and little sheds 

 with pots of medicine in them. One afternoon we passed 

 a small frame house, with the head of an ox in it as an 

 object of worship. The dreary uniformity of gloomy 

 forests and open flats must have a depressing influence 

 on the minds of the people. Some villages appear more 

 superstitious than others, if we may judge from the 

 greater number of idols they contain. 



