Before leaving Impalera I took several walks about the village, and found that it was divided into three groups of homesteads; that nearest the river contained 135 huts; another, where the natives took refuge during floods, contained twenty-five huts; the third, made up of thirty-two huts, lay farther to the west. The women did not wear aprons like the Bechuanas, but had little petticoats reaching to the knee. On the whole, the people were decidedly superior in looks to the Bechuana tribes.
Makumba left the village on the same day that we arrived. His proper home was on the left bank of the Zambesi, the residence at Impalera being occupied by one of his wives and some maids who attended to the fields, and kept the place prepared for him whenever he might choose to pay it a visit. The only reason for his being here now was that he might welcome me in the king’s name; I thanked him for his courtesy, and offered him a present, which he declined, saying that it was as much as his head was worth to accept a gift from either a black man or a white before the king had received one.
Late in the afternoon of the 17th we made our way to a great baobab close to the landing-place on the Zambesi known as “Makumba’s haven.” The boatmen put up a temporary shelter for Blockley and myself, and there I spent my first night on the bank of that great river that for years it had been my chief ambition to behold.
The landing-place was close to the rapids of which I have spoken, and about four miles above the mouth of the Chobe. Before us in the stream were numbers of small islands, some wooded and others overgrown with weeds. Darters were perching on the overhanging branches, and cormorants had taken up their quarters on the ledges of the dark brown rocks. Carefully avoiding the deeper places frequented by crocodiles, the birds kept on diving for fish and returning to their old positions, where they spread out their wings to dry. We shot several of them, but only managed to secure two, as the rest, like a bald buzzard (Haliaëtus vocifer) that I also killed, were carried down the stream and devoured by crocodiles. Hippopotamuses could be heard every ten minutes throughout the night, but the large fire that we made deterred them from coming close to us.
Soon after sunrise I took my first boat-journey on the Zambesi. I found myself in a fragile canoe made of a hollowed tree-stem scarcely eighteen inches wide, its sides being scarcely three inches above the surface of the deep blue stream, that made a dark belt around the diversified verdure of the islets. On the right, like a strong wall six feet in height, rose masses of reeds, extending very often miles away, and occasionally broken into regular arcades by the passage of the hippopotamuses between the river and their pasturage. Rose-coloured convolvuluses, countless in number, twined themselves up the reedstalks, and gave brightness and colour to the rustling forest. On the other hand was a reedy island, encircled with a hedge of the bristly papyrus, the feathery heads of the outer clumps trembling with the motion of the current; in well-nigh every gap of the fantastic foliage glimpses were caught of gaily-feathered birds, crimson, or grey, or white; ever and again a silver or a purple heron would dart out for a moment, whilst aquatic birds, in strange variety, were watching for fish behind the sedge.
Whenever the boatmen turned into one of the less frequented side-channels, there were always to be seen flocks of wild geese and ducks, with spoonbills, sandpipers, and three kinds of mews swarming on the sand-banks; nor could my attention fail to be attracted by the long-drawn cry of the bald buzzards, sitting in pairs upon the trees and hillocks. Every instant seemed to bring to light some fresh specimen of animal life, contributing new interest to the mighty stream.
The very mode of travelling gave an additional charm to the scene, as nothing can be imagined much more picturesque than the canoes, always fleet, however heavily laden, and manned with their dark-skinned crews, deftly plying their paddles, while their leather aprons, bound with coloured calico, fluttered in the wind. The steersman was always at the bow, next to him would sit the passenger, behind whom the oarsmen, varying in number from three to ten or eleven, would row in perfect time, often regulating their movements to a song. Some canoes that I saw were not less than twenty-two feet in length.
Taking into account the dimensions of the islands, I should estimate that the stream, in some parts only 300 yards across, occasionally attained a width of 1000 yards. In many places the shores had been washed away, so that there were no shelving banks. In sedgy spots, about eight feet from the shore, the water was six feet deep, and where the reeds were thick, it got no deeper for twenty feet away from land.
MASUPIA GRAVE.