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We observed among the people of Katema a love for singing-birds. One pretty little songster, named "cabazo", a species of canary, is kept in very neatly made cages, having traps on the top to entice its still free companions. On asking why they kept them in confinement, "Because they sing sweetly," was the answer.
Katema promised us the aid of some of his people as carriers, but his rule is not very stringent or efficient, for they refused to turn out for the work.
It was the good words only of the guides which were to aid me from the next chief, Katema, on to the sea; they were to turn back on reaching him; but he gave a good supply of food for the journey before us, and, after mentioning as a reason for letting us go even now that no one could say we had been driven away from the town, since we had been several days with him, he gave a most hearty salutation, and we parted with the wish that God might bless him.
When I had it in my power, I always gave something really useful. To Katema, Shinte, and others, I gave presents which cost me about 2 Pounds each, and I could return to them at any time without having a character for stinginess. How some men can offer three buttons, or some other equally contemptible gift, while they have abundance in their possession, is to me unaccountable.
They frequently tattoo their bodies, producing figures in the form of stars. Although their heads are thus elaborately adorned, their bodies are almost destitute of clothing. Reaching Calongo, Dr Livingstone directed his course towards the territory of his old friend, Katema. They were generally well received at the villages. On the 2nd of June they reached that of Kanawa.
Shakatwala informed us that Katema had not received precise information about us, but if we were peaceably disposed, as he loved strangers, we were to come to his town. We proceeded forthwith, but were turned aside, by the strategy of our friend Intemese, to the village of Quendende, the father-in-law of Katema.
The travellers paid a visit to Katema, the chief of the district, who received them dressed in a snuff-brown coat, with a helmet of beads and feathers on his head, and in his hand a number of tails of gnus bound together. He also sent some of his men to accompany them on their journey. The rains continued, and the doctor suffered much from having to sleep on the wet ground.
The habitual influence on their minds of the agency of unseen spirits may have a tendency in the same direction, by preserving the mental quietude of a kind of fatalism. We were forced to prepay our guide and his father too, and he went but one day, although he promised to go with us to Katema.
Leave Shinte Manioc Gardens Mode of preparing the poisonous kind Its general Use Presents of Food Punctiliousness of the Balonda Their Idols and Superstition Dress of the Balonda Villages beyond Lonaje Cazembe Our Guides and the Makololo Night Rains Inquiries for English cotton Goods Intemese's Fiction Visit from an old Man Theft Industry of our Guide Loss of Pontoon Plains covered with Water Affection of the Balonda for their Mothers A Night on an Island The Grass on the Plains Source of the Rivers Loan of the Roofs of Huts A Halt Fertility of the Country through which the Lokalueje flows Omnivorous Fish Natives' Mode of catching them The Village of a Half-brother of Katema, his Speech and Present Our Guide's Perversity Mozenkwa's pleasant Home and Family Clear Water of the flooded Rivers A Messenger from Katema Quendende's Village: his Kindness Crop of Wool Meet People from the Town of Matiamvo Fireside Talk Matiamvo's Character and Conduct Presentation at Katema's Court: his Present, good Sense, and Appearance Interview on the following Day Cattle A Feast and a Makololo Dance Arrest of a Fugitive Dignified old Courtier Katema's lax Government Cold Wind from the North Canaries and other singing Birds Spiders, their Nests and Webs Lake Dilolo Tradition Sagacity of Ants.
On the 7th we came to the village of Soana Molopo, a half-brother of Katema, a few miles beyond the Lokalueje. When we went to visit him, we found him sitting with about one hundred men. He called on Intemese to give some account of us, though no doubt it had been done in private before.
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