feathery foliage against a cloudless sky.  It being winter, we had the strange coloring on the banks which many parts of African landscape assume.  The country adjacent to the river is rocky and undulating, abounding in elephants and all other large game, except leches and nakongs, which seem generally to avoid stony ground.  The soil is of a reddish color, and very fertile, as is attested by the great quantity of grain raised annually by the Banyeti.  A great many villages of this poor and very industrious people are situated on both banks of the river:  they are expert hunters of the hippopotami and other animals, and very proficient in the manufacture of articles of wood and iron.  The whole of this part of the country being infested with the tsetse, they are unable to rear domestic animals.  This may have led to their skill in handicraft works.  Some make large wooden vessels with very neat lids, and wooden bowls of all sizes; and since the idea of sitting on stools has entered the Makololo mind, they have shown great taste in the different forms given to the legs of these pieces of furniture.

Other Banyeti, or Manyeti, as they are called, make neat and strong baskets of the split roots of a certain tree, while others excel in pottery and iron.  I can not find that they have ever been warlike.  Indeed, the wars in the centre of the country, where no slave-trade existed, have seldom been about any thing else but cattle.  So well known is this, that several tribes refuse to keep cattle because they tempt their enemies to come and steal.  Nevertheless, they have no objection to eat them when offered, and their country admits of being well stocked.  I have heard of but one war having occurred from another cause.  Three brothers, Barolongs, fought for the possession of a woman who was considered worth a battle, and the tribe has remained permanently divided ever since.

From the bend up to the north, called Katima-molelo (I quenched fire), the bed of the river is rocky, and the stream runs fast, forming a succession of rapids and cataracts, which prevent continuous navigation when the water is low.  The rapids are not visible when the river is full, but the cataracts of Nambwe, Bombwe, and Kale must always be dangerous.  The fall at each of these is between four and six feet.  But the falls of Gonye present a much more serious obstacle.  There we were obliged to take the canoes out of the water, and carry them more than a mile by land.  The fall is about thirty feet.  The main body of water, which comes over the ledge of rock when the river is low, is collected into a space seventy or eighty yards wide before it takes the leap, and, a mass of rock being thrust forward against the roaring torrent, a loud sound is produced.  Tradition reports the destruction in this place of two hippopotamus-hunters, who, over-eager in the pursuit of a wounded animal, were, with their intended prey, drawn down into the frightful gulf.  There is also a tradition of