260 MATABELE LAND. 



The remaining most characteristic feature of the 

 Falls represented in this drawing is that of the double 

 rainbow spanning the abyss. The marvellous colour- 

 ing of these rainbows, which are frequently visible 

 here, has struck all who have beheld them ; their 

 " tints," says Baines, " more beautiful than in Eng- 

 land's clouded climate one can ever dream of." 

 Whenever the sun falls upon the clouds of spray 

 these rainbows are always present, sometimes two, 

 sometimes three in number, and the brilliancy of their 

 colouring can scarcely be exaggerated. " Rainbows," 

 writes Chapman in his description of the Falls, the 

 first day he saw them, " so bright, so vivid, are never 

 seen in the skies. The lower one in particular [on 

 this occasion], probably from the contrast with the 

 black-looking rocks below, was too vivid, nay almost 

 blinding, to look upon, defying imitation by the most 

 skilful artist and all the colours at his command, yet 

 imparting its heavenly tints to every object over 

 which it successively passed." So marked a charac- 

 teristic of the spot are these rainbows that it appears, 

 according to Livingstone, the early native name of 

 the Falls was " Chongwe," signifying the Rainbow, or 

 the Place of the Rainbow ; a name, however, which 

 has since given place to others. Frank Oates's boys 

 spoke of the Falls as Metsi-a-tunya, a compound 

 word, signifying "water-sounding ;" whilst the name 

 which Livingstone received for them, as used by the 



and Mr. Selous in their respective works ; the impression it produces 

 on the mind of the traveller from the south being enhanced by the 

 contrast which it affords to the generally barren character of the 

 scenery passed through in approaching it. 



