receive any thing thankfully; but the coat he then had on was old, and he would like another.”  I introduced the subject of the Bible, but one of the old councilors broke in, told all he had picked up from the Mambari, and glided off into several other subjects.  It is a misery to speak through an interpreter, as I was now forced to do.  With a body of men like mine, composed as they were of six different tribes, and all speaking the language of the Bechuanas, there was no difficulty in communicating on common subjects with any tribe we came to; but doling out a story in which they felt no interest, and which I understood only sufficiently well to perceive that a mere abridgment was given, was uncommonly slow work.  Neither could Katema’s attention be arrested, except by compliments, of which they have always plenty to bestow as well as receive.  We were strangers, and knew that, as Makololo, we had not the best of characters, yet his treatment of us was wonderfully good and liberal.

I complimented him on the possession of cattle, and pleased him by telling him how he might milk the cows.  He has a herd of about thirty, really splendid animals, all reared from two which he bought from the Balobale when he was young.  They are generally of a white color, and are quite wild, running off with graceful ease like a herd of elands on the approach of a stranger.  They excited the unbounded admiration of the Makololo, and clearly proved that the country was well adapted for them.  When Katema wishes to slaughter one, he is obliged to shoot it as if it were a buffalo.  Matiamvo is said to possess a herd of cattle in a similar state.  I never could feel certain as to the reason why they do not all possess cattle in a country containing such splendid pasturage.

As Katema did not offer an ox, as would have been done by a Makololo or Caffre chief, we slaughtered one of our own, and all of us were delighted to get a meal of meat, after subsisting so long on the light porridge and green maize of Londa.  On occasions of slaughtering an animal, some pieces of it are in the fire before the skin is all removed from the body.  A frying-pan full of these pieces having been got quickly ready, my men crowded about their father, and I handed some all round.  It was a strange sight to the Balonda, who were looking on, wondering.  I offered portions to them too, but these were declined, though they are excessively fond of a little animal food to eat with their vegetable diet.  They would not eat with us, but they would take the meat and cook it in their own way, and then use it.  I thought at one time that they had imported something from the Mohammedans, and the more especially as an exclamation of surprise, “Allah”, sounds like the Illah of the Arabs; but we found, a little farther on, another form of salutation, of Christian (?) origin, “Ave-rie” (Ave Marie).  The salutations probably travel farther than the faith.  My people, when satisfied with a meal like that which they enjoy so often at