Chap. YllL 
retur:m ;ro linyanti. 
177 
We paddled on from midday till sunset. Tliere was notliing 
but a wall of reed on each bank^ and we saw every prospect of 
spending a supperless night in our float; but just as the short 
twilight of these parts was commencing^ we perceived on the north 
bank the village of Moremi, one of the Makololo^ whose acquaint¬ 
ance I had made in our former visits and who was now 
located on the island Mahonta (lat. 17° 58' S.^ long. 24° 6' E.). 
The villagers looked as we may suppose people do who see a 
ghost, and in their figurative way of speaking said, He has 
dropped among us from the clouds, yet came riding on the back 
of a hippopotamus! We Makololo thought no one could cross 
the Chobe without our knowledge, but here he drops among us 
like a bhd.” 
Next day we returned in canoes across the flooded lands, and 
found that, in our absence, the men had allowed the cattle to 
wander into a very small patch of wood to the west containing 
the tsetse; this carelessness cost me ten fine large oxen. After 
remaining a few days, some of the head men of the Makololo 
came down from Linyanti, with a large party of Barotse, to take 
us across the river. Tliis they did in fine style, swimming and 
diving among the oxen more like aUigators than men, and taking 
the waggons to pieces and carrying them across on a number of 
canoes lashed together. We were now among friends ; so going 
about tliirty miles to the north, in order to avoid the still flooded 
lands on the north of the Chobe, we turned westwards towards 
Linyanti (lat. 18° 17' 20" S., long. 23° 50' 9" E.), where we 
arrived on the 23rd of May, 1853. This is the capital town of 
the Makololo, and only a short distance from our waggon-stand 
of 1851 (lat. 18° 20' S., long. 23° 50' E.). 
N 
