HISTORY OF THE BAROTZI VALLEY 405 
forced Lebossi to retreat, fighting heroically against fearful odds, but, 
overwhelmed at last by superior numbers, his forces fled, and he, obliged 
to follow, crossed the Zambesi at the Nghambwe cataracts. Simbwye, 
the chief here in charge of the crossing, followed in the night, and with 
murderous assegai killed him, thus ending the career of one of the 
fiercest and boldest natives that ever trod the Zambesi Valley. This 
act firmly established Lebossi at Lee-a-Lui (i.e. where the sun shines) 
on the throne, and he rules the country to this day. 
In 1882 Lebossi, to subjugate the Bashukulumbwe people dwelling 
on the Kafukwe river, went with twelve thousand men across the 
Looengwe river into that country, where he fought many battles 
victoriously, displaying great personal courage. The Bashukulumbwe, 
who are very rich in cattle, suffered heavily through this raid, losing 
some forty thousand head to their conqueror, who succeeded, spite of 
forced marches, in bringing home to the Barotzi Aalley over twenty 
thousand head of his booty. We were told that the reason the 
Bashukulumbwe are so rich in cattle is that they rarely kill oxen 
for food; only on occasions of great ceremony, such as the death of 
a great chief, or other state occasions, is it permitted to slaughter 
their stock, which consequently increases to an enormous extent in 
this very healthy and fertile district. 
Lebossi or Lewanika reigned in peace, after the disturbances of 
the last years, up to the date of our arrival in 1884. Lately I have 
heard that he is still in peaceful possession of his country, though much 
disturbed at the advance of the British South African Company into the 
adjoining territory, Matabeleland, and what he considers the betrayal 
of their king after all the kindnesses he has showered upon the whites. 
The religion of the Barotzi much resembles that of all natives in 
South Africa in its form of ‘ancestor worship.’ They acknowledge 
a supreme being called Nyambwe, who sways their destinies, and 
to whom the spirits of their ancestors are supposed to appeal on behalf 
of the living, although they, like each tribe, may have a different 
manner of fulfilling the rites accorded to the spirits that influence 
their fates. When a chief dies, his people kill cattle over the grave, 
so that he shall have food on his journey, but the flesh of the cattle 
they devour themselves, arguing that the spirits of cattle alone suffice 
for the ghostly wants of the dead. They also build their towns round 
the chiefs’ graves as an inducement for them to stay and protect them, 
and that their spirits may not be lonely. They consult these graves 
as oracles through the agency of priests, who profess to converse with 
the dead through a hole connecting the death chamber with the outer 
world. Carefully listening with one ear at the orifice, the priest, or 
witch-doctor, usually a wise and clever man, delivers the spirit- 
