SMOKE WHICH SOUNDS. 483 



relatives. These were all decaying from the effects of the 

 sun and weather ; but a few, which had enjoyed the 

 shade, were in a pretty good condition. I felt inclined to 

 take a specimen of the tusks of the hippopotami, as they 

 were the largest I had ever seen ; but feared that the 

 people would look upon me as a " resurrectionist " if I 

 did, and regard any unfavourable event which might 

 afterwards occur, as a punishment for the sacrilege. The 

 Batoka believe that Sekote had a pot of medicine buried 

 here, which, when opened, would cause an epidemic in 

 the country. These tyrants acted much on the fears of 

 their people. 



As this was the point from which we intended to strike 

 off to the north-east, I resolved on the following day to 

 visit the falls of Victoria, called by the natives Mosioa- 

 tunya, or more anciently Shongwe. Of these we had 

 often heard since we came into the country : indeed 

 one of the questions asked by Sebituane was, ! ■ Have you 

 smoke that sounds in your country ? " They did not 

 go near enough to examine them, but, viewing them 

 with awe at a distance, said, in reference to the vapour 

 and noise, " Mois oa tunya " (smoke does soimd there). 

 It was previously called Shongwe, the meaning of which 

 I could not ascertain. The word for a " pot " resembles 

 this, and it may mean a seething caldron ; but I am not 

 certain of it. Being persuaded that Mr. Oswell and myself 

 were the very first Europeans who ever visited the 

 Zambesi in the centre of the country, and that this is the 

 connecting link between the known and unknown portions 

 of that river, I decided to use the same liberty as the 

 Makololo did, and gave the only English name I have 

 affixed to any part of the country. No better proof of 

 previous ignorance of this river could be desired, than 

 that an untravelled gentleman, who had spent a great 

 part of his life in the study of the geography of Africa, 

 and knew every thing written on the subject from the 

 time of Ptolemy downwards, actually asserted in the 

 " Athenaeum," while I was coming up the Red Sea, 

 that this magnificent river, the L,eeambye, had " no con- 

 nection with the Zambesi, but flowed under the Kalahari 

 Desert, and became lost ; " and, " that, as all the old 

 maps asserted, the Zambesi took its rise in the very 

 hills to which we have now come." This modest assertion 

 smacks exactly as if a native of Timbuctu should declare, 



