Chap. XVIT. 
CATTLE~A FEAST. 
321 
they have always plenty to bestow as well as receive. We were 
strangers^ and knew that^ as Makololo^ we had not the best of 
characters, yet his treatment of us was wonderfully good and 
liberal. 
I complimented him on the possession of cattle, and pleased 
him by telling him how he might milk the cows. He has a 
herd of about thirty, really splendid animals, all reared from 
two which he bought from the Balobale when he was young. 
They are generally of a white colour and are quite wild, running 
off with graceful ease like a herd of elands on the approach of 
a stranger. They excited the unbounded admiration of the 
Makololo, and clearly proved that the country was well adapted 
for them. When Katema wishes to slaughter one, he is obliged 
to shoot it as if it were a buffalo. Matiamvo is said to possess a 
herd of cattle in a similar state. I never could feel certain as 
to the reason why they do not all possess cattle in a country 
containing such splendid pasturage. 
As Katema did not offer an ox, as would have been done by 
a Makololo or Caffre chief,'we slaughtered one of our own, and 
all of us were delighted to get a meal of meat, after subsisting 
so long on the light porridge and green maize of Londa. On 
occasions of slaughtering an animal, some pieces of it are in the 
fire before the skin is all removed from the body. A frying-pan 
full of these pieces having been got quickly ready, my men 
crowded about their father, and I handed some all round. It 
was a strange sight to the Balonda, "who w’^ere looking on, 
wondering. I offered portions to them too, but these w^ere 
declined, though they are excessively fond of a little animal 
food, to eat with their vegetable diet. They would not eat 
with us, but they would take the meat and cook it in their owm 
way, and then use it. I thought at one time that they had 
imported something from the Mahometans, and the more espe¬ 
cially as an exclamation of surprise, Allah,” sounds like the 
Illah of the Arabs; but we found, a little farther on, another 
form of salutation, of Christian (?) origin, ^^Ave-rie” (Ave 
Marie). The salutations probably travel farther than the faith. 
My people, when satisfied with a meal like that which they enjoy 
so often at home, amused themselves by an uproarious dance. 
Katema sent to ask what I had given them to produce so much 
