188 LEAVE THE ELEPHANT VALLEY. CHAP. VII. meal. They seldom, if ever, bake it into cakes like oatmeal; for, though finely ground and beautifully white, it will not cohere readily. Maize meal is formed into dough more readily, but that too is inferior to wheaten flour, or even oatmeal, for baking. It was rather difficult to persuade the men to boil the porridge for us more patiently; and they became witty, and joked us for being like women, when the weakness of fever compelled us to pay some attention to the cooking, evidently thinking that it was beneath the dignity of white men to stoop to such matters. They look upon the meal and water porridge of the black tribes as the English used to do upon the French frogs, and call the eaters "mere water-porridge fellows," while the Makololo's meal and milk porridge takes the character of English roast-beef. Sandia gave us two guides; and on the 4th of June we left the elephant valley, taking a westerly course; and, after crossing a few ridges, entered the Chingerere or Parguruguru valley, through which, in the rainy season, runs the streamlet Pajodze. The mountains on our left, between us and the Zambesi, our guides told us have the same name as the valley, but that at the confluence of the Pajodze is called Morumbwa. We struck the river at less than half a mile to the north of the cataract Morumbwa. On climbing up the base of this mountain at Pajodze, we found that we were distant only the diameter of the mountain from the cataract. In measuring the cataract we formerly stood on its southern flank; now we were perched on its northern flank, and at once recognized the onion-shaped mountain, here called Zakavuma, whose smooth convex surface overlooks the broken water. Its bearing by compass was 180° from the spot to which we had climbed, and 700 or 800 yards distant. We now, from this standing-point, therefore, completed our in CHAP. VII. A BANYAI HEAD MAN'S DEMAND. 189 spection of all Kebrabasa, and saw what, as a whole, was never before seen by Europeans, so far as any records show. The difference of level between Pajodze and Tette, as shown by the barometer, was about 160 feet; but it must be remembered that we had no simultaneous observations at the two stations. The somewhat conical shape of Zakavuma standing on the right, and the more castellated form of Morumbwa on the left, constitute the narrow gateway in which the cataract exists. The talus of each portal, keeping close together northward, makes a narrow, upright-sided trough from the cataract up to Pajodze. The deep green river winds in it among massive black angular rocks; above this, as far as Chicova, the Zambesi again has a flood bed and a deep water-worn groove, like that near the lower end of Kebrabasa, but the flood bed is only 200 or 300 yards broad, and the stream in this part of the groove is adorned in various places with the white foam of a number of small rapids. By the motion of pieces of wood in the water, and timed by a watch, the current was ascertained to be from 3.3 to 41 knots per hour in the more rapid places. We breakfasted a short distance above Pajodze. At a comparatively smooth part of the Zambesi, called Movuzi, still farther up, where traders sometimes cross from the southern to the northern bank, a Banyai head man came over with a dozen armed followers, and in an insolent way demanded payment for leave to pass on our way. This was not a friendly request for a present, so our men told him that it was not the custom of the English to pay fines for nothing; and, being unsuccessful, he went quietly back again. One chief of the Banyai on the opposite bank is called Zuda, which the Portuguese translate into Judas, on account of his grasping propensities. Talking of us to some of our party, 190 MAGNIFICENT MOUNTAIN SCENERY. CHAP. VII. he said, "These men passed me going down and gave me nothing; the English cloth is good; I am come to clothe myself with it now as they go up." His messenger came and sat down impudently in our midst before we rose from breakfast, and began an oration, not to us, but to his attendant. This talking at us roused the Makololo's ire, and they replied that "English cloth was good; and Englishmen paid for all they ate. They were now walking on God's earth in peace, doing no harm to the country or gardens, though English guns had six mouths, and English balls traveled far, and hit hard." However, by keeping on the left bank, we avoided collision with these troublesome and exacting Banyai. The remainder of the Kebrabasa path, on to Chicova, was close to the compressed and rocky river. Ranges of lofty tree-covered mountains, with deep narrow valleys, in which are dry water-courses, or flowing rivulets, stretch from the northwest, and are prolonged on the opposite side of the river in a southeasterly direction. Looking back, the mountain scenery in Kebrabasa was magnificent: conspicuous from their form and steep sides are the two gigantic portals of the cataract; the vast forests still wore their many brilliant autumnal-colored tints of green, yellow, red, purple, and brown, thrown into relief by the gray bark of the trunks in the background. Among these variegated trees were some conspicuous for their new livery of fresh light green leaves, as though the winter of others was their spring. The bright sunshine in these mountain forests, and the ever-changing forms of the cloud shadows, gliding over portions of the surface, added fresh charms to scenes already surpassingly beautiful. From what we have seen of the Kebrabasa rocks and rap CHAP. VII. SANDIA'S REPORT OF KEBRABASA. 191 ids, it appears too evident that they must always form a barrier to navigation at the ordinary low water of the river; but the rise of the water in this gorge being as much as eighty feet perpendicularly, it is probable that a steamer might be taken up at high flood, when all the rapids are smoothed over, to run on the upper Zambesi. The most formidable cataract in it, Morumbwa, has only about twenty feet of fall in a distance of thirty yards, and it must entirely disappear when the water stands eighty feet higher. Those of the Makololo who worked on board the ship were not sorry at the steamer being left below, as they had become heartily tired of cutting the wood that the insatiable furnace of the "Asthmatic" required. Mbia, who was a bit of a wag, laughingly exclaimed in broken English, "Oh, Kebrabasa good, very good; no let shippee up to Sekeletu, too muchee work, cuttee woodyee, cuttee woodyee: Kebrabasa good." It is currently reported and commonly believed that once upon a time a Portuguese named José Pedra-by the natives called Nyamatimbira-chief, or capitão mor, of Zumbo, a man of large enterprise and small humanity, being anxious to ascertain if Kebrabasa could be navigated, made two slaves fast to a canoe, and launched it from Chicova into Kebrabasa, in order to see if it would come out at the other end. As neither slaves nor canoe ever appeared again, his excellency concluded that Kebrabasa was unnavigable. A trader had a large canoe swept away by a sudden rise of the river, and it was found without damage below; but the most satisfactory information was that of old Sandia, who asserted that in flood all Kebrabasa became quite smooth, and he had often seen it so. 192 MODE OF MAKING FIRE. *CHAP. VIIL CHAPTER VIII. Pass from Kebrabasa on to Chicova on the 7th of June, 1860.-Native Travelers' Mode of making Fire.-Night Arrangements of the Camp.-Native Names of Stars.-Moon-blindness.-Our volunteer Fireman.-Native political Discussions.-Our Manner of Marching.-Not to make Toil of a Pleasure.-The Civilized show more endurance than the Uncivilized.-Chitora's Politeness.-Filtered Water preferred by native Women.-Whites Hobgoblins to the Blacks.-The fear of Man on wild Animals.-First Impressions of a Donkey's local Powers. WE emerged from the thirty-five or forty miles of Kebrabasa hills into the Chicova plains on the 7th of June, 1860, having made short marches all the way. The cold nights caused some of our men to cough badly, and colds in this country almost invariably become fever. The Zambesi suddenly expands at Chicova, and resumes the size and appearance it has at Tette. Near this point we found a large seam of coal exposed in the left bank. We met with native travelers occasionally. Those on a long journey carry with them a sleeping-mat and wooden pillow, cooking-pot and bag of meal, pipe and tobacco-pouch, a knife, bow and arrows, and two small sticks, of from two to three feet in length, for making fire, when obliged to sleep away from human habitations. Dry wood is always abundant, and they get fire by the following method. A notch is cut in one of the sticks, which, with a close-grained outside, has a small core of pith, and this notched stick is laid hori zontally on a knife-blade on the ground; the operator, squatting, places his great toes on each end to keep all steady, and taking the other wand, which is of very hard wood cut to a |