320 
INTERVIEW WITH KATEMA. 
Chap. XVII. 
his sides with mirth, is seldom difficult to deal with. When we 
rose to take leave, all rose with us, as at Shinte’s. 
Eeturniiig next morning, Katema addressed me thus—“I 
am the great Moene (lord) Katema, the fellow of Matiamvo. 
There is no one in this country equal to Matiamvo and me. I 
have always lived here, and my forefathers too. There is the 
house in which my father lived. You found no human skulls 
near the place where you are encamped. I never killed any 
of the traders; they all come to me. I am the great Moene 
Katema, of whom you have heard.” He looked as if he had 
fallen asleep tipsy, and dreamed of his greatness. On explain¬ 
ing my objects to liim, he promptly pointed out tliree men who 
would be our guides, and explained that the N.W. path was 
the most direct, and that by which all traders came, but that 
the water at present standing on the plains would reach up to 
the loins; he would therefore send us by a more northerly route, 
which no trader had yet traversed. Tins was more suited to our 
wishes, for we never found a path safe that had been trodden by 
slave-traders. 
We presented a few articles, which pleased him highly; a 
small shawl, a razor, three bunches of beads, some buttons, and 
a powder-horn. Apologising for the insignificance of the gift, 
I wished to know what I could bring him from Loanda, saying 
not a large thing, but something small. He laughed heartily 
at the limitation, and replied, “ Everything of the white people 
would be acceptable, and he would receive anything thankfully; 
but the coat he had then on was old, and he would like 
another.” I introduced the subject of the Bible, but one of 
the old councillors broke in, told all he had picked up from 
the Mambari, and glided off into several other subjects. It 
is a misery to speak through an interpreter, as I was now 
forced to do. With a body of men like mine, composed as 
they were of six different tribes, and all speaking the lan¬ 
guage of the Bechuanas, there was no difficulty in communi¬ 
cating on common subjects with any tribe we came to; but 
doling out a story in which they felt no interest, and which I 
understood only sufficiently well to perceive that a mere abridg¬ 
ment w'as given, was uncommonly slow work. Neither could 
Katema’s attention be arrested, except by compliments, of wliich 
