Next day we returned in canoes across the flooded lands, and found that, in our absence, the men had allowed the cattle to wander into a very small patch of wood to the west containing the tsetse; this carelessness cost me ten fine large oxen. After remaining a few days, some of the head men of the Makololo came down from Linyanti, with a large party of Barotse, to take us across the river. This they did in fine style, swimming and diving among the oxen more like alligators than men, and taking the wagons to pieces and carrying them across on a number of canoes lashed together. We were now among friends; so going about thirty miles to the north, in order to avoid the still flooded lands on the north of the Chobe, we turned westward toward Linyanti (lat. 18d 17' 20" S., long. 23d 50' 9" E.), where we arrived on the 23d of May, 1853. This is the capital town of the Makololo, and only a short distance from our wagon-stand of 1851 (lat. 18d 20' S., long. 23d 50' E.). Chapter 9. Reception at Linyanti--The court Herald--Sekeletu obtains the Chieftainship from his Sister--Mpepe's Plot--Slave-trading Mambari --Their sudden Flight--Sekeletu narrowly escapes Assassination-- Execution of Mpepe--The Courts of Law--Mode of trying Offenses-- Sekeletu's Reason for not learning to read the Bible--The Disposition made of the Wives of a deceased Chief--Makololo Women--They work but little--Employ Serfs--Their Drink, Dress, and Ornaments--Public Religious Services in the Kotla--Unfavorable Associations of the place--Native Doctors--Proposals to teach the Makololo to read--Sekeletu's Present--Reason for accepting it--Trading in Ivory--Accidental Fire--Presents for Sekeletu--Two Breeds of native Cattle--Ornamenting the Cattle--The Women and the Looking-glass--Mode of preparing the Skins of Oxen for Mantles and for Shields--Throwing the Spear. The whole population of Linyanti, numbering between six and seven thousand souls, turned out en masse to see the wagons in motion. They had never witnessed the phenomenon before, we having on the former occasion departed by night. Sekeletu, now in power, received us in what is considered royal style, setting before us a great number of pots of boyaloa, the beer of the country. These were brought by women, and each bearer takes a good draught of the beer when she sets it down, by way of "tasting", to show that there is no poison.