Chap. XIV. 
SEKOBIXYAXE’S MISGOVEEXMEXT. 
247 
external air to any spot at once raises its temperature above 90°. 
A new attack of fever here caused excessive languor; but, as I 
am already getting tired of quoting my fevers, and never liked 
to read travels myself, where much was said about the illnesses 
of the traveller, I shall henceforth endeavour to say little about 
them. 
We here sent back the canoe of Sekeletu, and got the loan of 
others from Mpololo. Eight riding oxen, and seven for slaughter, 
were, according to the orders of that chief, also furnished ; some 
were intended for our own use, and others as presents to the 
chiefs of the Balonda. Mpololo was particularly liberal in giving 
all that Sekeletu ordered, though, as he feeds on the cattle he 
has in charge, he might have felt it so much abstracted from his 
own perquisites. Mpololo now acts the great man, and is fol¬ 
lowed everywhere by a crowd of toadies, who sing songs in dis¬ 
paragement of Mpepe, of whom he always lived in fear. While 
Mpepe was alive, he too was regaled with the same fulsome 
adulation, and now they curse him. They are very foul-tongued ; 
equals, on meeting, often greet each other with a profusion of 
oaths, and end the volley with a laugh. 
In coming up the river to Naliele we met a party of fugitive 
Barotse returning to their homes, and, as the circumstance illus¬ 
trates the social status of these subjects of the Makololo, I intro¬ 
duce it here. The villagers in question were the children, or 
serfs, if we may use the term, of a young man of the same age 
and tribe as Sekeletu, who, being of an irritable temper, went 
by the nickname of Sekobinyane—a little slavish thing. His 
treatment of his servants was so bad, that most of them had fled ; 
and when the Mambari came, and, contrary to the orders of 
Sekeletu, purchased slaves, Sekobinyane sold one or two of the 
Barotse children of his village. The rest fled immediately to 
Masiko, and were gladly received by that Barotse chief as his 
subjects. 
When Sekeletu and I first ascended the Leeambye we met 
Sekobinyane coming down, on his way to Linyanti, On being 
asked the news, he remained silent about the loss of his village, 
it being considered a crime among the Makololo for any one to 
treat his people so ill, as to cause them to run away from him. 
He then passed us, and, dreading the vengeance of Sekeletu for 
