Chap. XXVI. 
THE TRAVELLING PARTY. 
533 
should here be associated with hatred to the zebra, as among the 
Bakwains; that tliis operation is performed at the same age that 
circumcision is in other tribes; and that here that ceremony is 
unknown. The custom is so universal, that a person who has his 
teeth is considered ugly, and occasionally, when the Batoka 
borrowed my looking-glass, the disparaging remark would be 
made respecting boys or girls who stdl retained their teeth, “ Look 
at the great teeth! ’’ Some of the Makololo give a more 
facetious explanation of the custom; tliey say that the wife of 
a cliief having in a quarrel bitten her husband’s hand, he, in 
revenge, ordered her front teeth to be knocked out, and all the 
men in the tribe followed his example ; but this does not explain 
why they afterwards knocked out their own. 
The Batoka of the Zambesi are generally very dark in colom', 
and very degraded and negro-hke in appearance, while those 
who live on the high lands we are now ascending, are frequently 
of the colour of coffee and milk. We had a large number of the 
Batoka of MokAvine in our party, sent by Sekeletu to carry his 
tusks. Their greater degTadation was probably caused by the 
treatment of their chiefs—the barbarians of the islands. I found 
them more difficult to manage than any of the rest of my compa¬ 
nions, being much less reasonable and impressible than the others. 
My party consisted of the head-men afore-mentioned, Sekwebu, 
and Kanyata. We were joined at the falls by another head-man 
of the Makololo, named Monahin, in command of the Batoka. 
We had also some of the Banajoa under Mosismyane, and last of 
all, a small party of Bashubia and Barotse under Tuba Mokoro, 
Avhich had been furnished by Sekeletu because of their ability to 
swim. They carried then paddles with them, and, as the Makololo 
suggested, were able to swim over the rivers by night and steal 
canoes, if the inliabitants should be so umnasonable as to refuse 
to lend them. These different parties assorted together into 
messes; any orders were given through their head-man, and 
when food was obtained he distributed it to the mess. Each 
party knew its own spot in the encampment; and as this was 
always placed so that our backs should be to the east, the direction 
from whence the prevailing winds came, no time was lost in 
fixing the sheds of our encampment. They each took it in turn 
to pull grass to make my bed, so I lay luxuriously. 
