wildly and letting off their guns, shouting aloud during every interval between their shots: under one of the trees a number of people were sitting drinking beer, and under the other tree was the grave that had been just closed in.
The Masupias are accustomed to make their graves six or seven feet deep and two feet wide, and to bury with the deceased his coat, his mattock, and other weapons; a little corn is likewise thrown into the grave. The friends always spend the rest of the day at the place of interment, and if the buried man has been wealthy a large quantity of meat is consumed as well as the beer. The shouting and running about and the discharge of the guns are supposed to scare away the evil spirits from the spot. I asked one of the bystanders how the person just buried had come by his death; he only raised his eyes to signify that it was all owing to Molemo.
In the course of the day some of the people brought in a quantity of the flesh of a hippopotamus that they had killed; they considered it quite a young animal, but its teeth were full ten inches long.
In the conveyance of my baggage to Makumba’s landing-place I was assisted by a brother of the chief’s, named Ramusokotan; he resided some miles further up the left bank of the Chobe, and was entrusted with the duty of guarding the lower course of the river. On my way to the landing-place I saw several pallah-gazelles, being twice so close to them that I could observe all their movements.
The Zambesi was lower than I had seen it before. As we crossed it we had a narrow escape
