322 
A DIGNIFIED ANCIENT. 
Chap. XVII. 
excitement. Interaese replied it was their custom, and they 
meant no harm. The companion of the ox we slaughtered 
refused food for two days, and went lowing about for him con¬ 
tinually. He seemed inconsolable for his loss, and tried again 
and again to escape back to the Makololo country. My men 
remarked, He thinks, they will kill me as well as my friend.” 
Katema thought it the result of art, and had fears of my skill 
in medicine, and of course witchcraft. He refused to see the 
magic lantern. 
One of the affairs which had been intrusted by Shinte to 
Intemese, was the rescue of a wife, who had eloped with a young 
man belonging to Katema. As this was the only case I have 
met with in the interior, in which a fugitive was sent back to a 
chief against his own will, I am anxious to mention it. On 
Intemese claiming her as his master’s wife, she protested loudly 
against it, saying, ‘‘ she knew she was not going back to be a 
wife again: she was going back to be sold to the Mambari.” My 
men formed many friendships with the people of Katema, and 
some of the poorer classes said in confidence, “We wish our 
children could go back with you to the Makololo country; here 
we are all in danger of being sold.” My men were of opinion 
that it was only the want of knowledge of the southern country 
which prevented an exodus of all the lower portions of Londa 
population thither. 
It is remarkable how little people living in a flat forest 
country like this, know of distant tribes. An old man, who said 
he had been born about the same time as the late Matiamvo, 
and had been his constant companion tlirough life, visited us; 
and as I was sitting on some grass in front of the little gipsy 
tent mending my camp stool, I invited him to take a seat on 
the grass beside me. This was peremptorily refused : “he had 
never sat on the grouad during the late chief’s reign, and he 
was not going to degrade himself now.” One of my men 
handed him a log of wood taken from the fire, and helped him 
out of the difficulty. When I offered him some cooked meat on 
a plate, he would not touch that either, but would take it home. 
So I humom’ed him by sending a servant to bear a few ounces 
of meat to the town beliind him. He mentioned the Lolo 
(Lulua) as the branch of the Leeambye which flows southwards 
