Chap. XXVI. DIVINERS, NATIVE AND EUROPEAN. 
625 
when left in charge of my Makololo friends, they were always 
allowed to wither, after having vegetated, by being forgotten. I 
bargained for a hedge with one of the Makololo, and if he is 
faitliful, I have great hopes of Mosioatunya’s abilities as a nur¬ 
seryman. My only source of fear is the hippopotami, whose foot¬ 
prints I saw on the island. When the garden was prepared, I cut 
my initials on a tree, and the date 1855. This was the only in¬ 
stance in which I indulged in tliis piece of vanity. The garden 
stands in front, and were there no hippopotami, I have no doubt 
but this will be the parent of aU the gardens, which may yet be 
in this new country. We then went up to Kalai again. 
On passing up we had a view of the hut on the island, where 
my goods had lain so long in safety. It was under a group of 
palm-trees, and Sekeletu mformed me that, so fully persuaded 
were most of the Makololo of the presence of dangerous charms 
in the packages, that, had I not returned to tell them the con¬ 
trary, they never would have been touched. Some of the diviners 
had been so positive in their decisions on the point, that the men 
who lifted a bag thought they felt a live kid in it. The diviners 
always quote their predictions when thay happen to tally with 
the event. They declared that the whole party which went to 
Loanda had perished; and as I always quoted the instances in 
which they failed, many of them refused to tlirow the “ bola ” (in¬ 
struments of divination) when I was near. This was a noted instance 
of failure. It would have afforded me equal if not greater pleasure 
to have exposed the failm^e, if such it had been, of the Emropean 
diviner whose paper lay a whole year on tliis island, but I was 
obliged to confess that he had been successful with his bola,” 
and could only comfort myself with the idea that, though Sir 
Eoderick Murchison’s discourse had lain so long within sight and 
sound of the magnificent falls, I had been cut out ” by no one 
in their discovery. 
I saw the falls at low water, and the columns of vapour, when 
five or SIX miles distant. When the river is full, or in flood, the 
columns, it is said, can be seen ten miles off, and the sound is 
quite distinct somewhat beyond Kalai, or about an equal distance. 
No one can then go to the island in the middle. The next 
visitor must bear these points in mind in comparing his descrip¬ 
tion with mine. 
