Missionary Travels and Researches in South AfricaLivingstone, David
Religion
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa
Livingstone, David
Missions -- South Africa; South Africa -- Description and travel
The grass here was so tall that the oxen became uneasy, and one night
the sight of a hyaena made them rush away into the forest to the east
of us. On rising on the morning of the 19th, I found that my Bakwain
lad had run away with them. This I have often seen with persons of this
tribe, even when the cattle are startled by a lion. Away go the young
men in company with them, and dash through bush and brake for miles,
till they think the panic is a little subsided; they then commence
whistling to the cattle in the manner they do when milking the cows:
having calmed them, they remain as a guard till the morning. The men
generally return with their shins well peeled by the thorns. Each
comrade of the Mopato would expect his fellow to act thus, without
looking for any other reward than the brief praise of the chief. Our
lad, Kibopechoe, had gone after the oxen, but had lost them in the rush
through the flat, trackless forest. He remained on their trail all the
next day and all the next night. On Sunday morning, as I was setting off
in search of him, I found him near the wagon. He had found the oxen late
in the afternoon of Saturday, and had been obliged to stand by them all
night. It was wonderful how he managed without a compass, and in such
a country, to find his way home at all, bringing about forty oxen with
him.
The Bechuanas will keep on the sick-list as long as they feel any
weakness; so I at last began to be anxious that they should make
a little exertion to get forward on our way. One of them, however,
happening to move a hundred yards from the wagon, fell down, and,
being unobserved, remained the whole night in the pouring rain totally
insensible; another was subjected to frequent swooning; but, making beds
in the wagons for these our worst cases, with the help of the Bakwain
and the Bushmen, we moved slowly on. We had to nurse the sick like
children; and, like children recovering from illness, the better they
became the more impudent they grew. This was seen in the peremptory
orders they would give with their now piping voices. Nothing that we did
pleased them; and the laughter with which I received their ebullitions,
though it was only the real expression of gladness at their recovery,
and amusement at the ridiculous part they acted, only increased their
chagrin. The want of power in the man who guided the two front oxen, or,
as he was called, the "leader", caused us to be entangled with trees,
both standing and fallen, and the labor of cutting them down was even
more severe than ordinary; but, notwithstanding an immense amount of
toil, my health continued good.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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