168 ANNUAL TRIBUTE TO ZULUS. CHAP VI. cealing himself behind the casing of the deck-house in the daytime. To be aroused in the dark by five feet of cold green snake gliding over one's face is rather unpleasant, however rapid the movement may be. Myriads of two varieties of cockroaches infested the vessel; they not only ate round the roots of our nails, but even devoured and defiled our food, flannels, and boots; vain were all our efforts to extirpate these destructive pests; if you kill one, say the sailors, a hundred come down to his funeral! In the work of Commodore Owen it is stated that cockroaches, pounded into a paste, form a powerful carminative; this has not been confirmed; but when monkeys are fed on them they are sure to become so lean as to suggest the idea that for fat people a course of cockroach might be as efficacious as a course of Banting. On coming to Senna, we found that the Zulus had arrived in force for their annual tribute. These men are under good discipline, and never steal from the people. The tax is claimed on the ground of conquest, the Zulus having formerly completely overcome the Senna people, and chased them on to the islands in the Zambesi. Fifty-four of the Portuguese were slain on the occasion, and, notwithstanding the mud fort, the village has never recovered its former power. Fever was now very prevalent, and most of the Portuguese were down with it. The village has a number of foul pools, filled with green fetid mud, in which horrid, long-snouted, greyhound-shaped pigs wallow with delight. The greater part of the space inclosed in the stockade, which is an oblong of say a thousand yards by five hundred, is covered with tall indigo-plants, cassia, and bushes, with mounds on which once stood churches and monasteries. The air is not allowed free circulation, so it is not to be wondered at CHAP. VI. FEVER PLANT. 171 that men suffer from fever. The feeding of the pigs is indescribably shocking; but they are a favorite food themselves, and the owners may be heard, both here and at Tette, recalling them from their wanderings by pet names, as "João," "Manoel," "kudia! kudia! (to eat, to eat), Antonio!" We saw a curious variety which had accidentally appeared among these otherwise uninteresting brutes. A lit ter was beautifully marked with yellowish-brown and white stripes alternately, and the bands, about an inch broad, were disposed, not as in the zebra, but horizontally along the body. Stripes appear occasionally in mules and in horses, and are supposed to show a reversion to the original wild type, in the same way that highly-bred domestic pigeons sometimes manifest a tendency to revert to the plumage of the rock-pigeon, with its black bar across the tail. This striped variety may betoken relationship to the original wild pig, the young of which are distinctly banded, though the marks fade as the animal grows up. For a good view of the adjacent scenery, the hill Baramuana, behind the village, was ascended. A caution was given about the probability of an attack of fever from a plant that grows near the summit. Dr. Kirk discovered it to be the Padevia fatida, which, when smelt, actually does give headache and fever. It has a nasty fetor, as its name indicates. This is one instance in which fever and a foul smell coincide. In a number of instances offensive effluvia and fever seem to have no connection. Owing to the abundant rains, the crops in the Senna district were plentiful; this was fortunate, after the partial failure of the past two years. It was the 25th of April, 1860, before we reached Tette; here also the crops were luxuriant, and the people said that they had not had such abundance since 1856, the year when 172 WANT OF IRRIGATION. CHAP. VI. Dr. Livingstone came down the river. It is astonishing to any one who has seen the works for irrigation in other countries, as at the Cape and in Egypt, that no attempt has ever been made to lead out the water either of the Zambesi or any of its tributaries; no machinery has ever been used to raise it even from the stream, but droughts and starvation are endured, as if they were inevitable dispensations of Providence, incapable of being mitigated. Our friends at Tette, though heedless of the obvious advantages which other nations would eagerly seize, have beaten the entire world in one branch of industry. It is a sort of anomaly that the animal most nearly allied to man in structure and function should be the most alien to him in respect to labor or trusty friendship, but here the genius of the monkey is turned to good account. He is made to work in the chase of certain "wingless insects better known than respected." Having been invited to witness this branch of Tette industry, we can testify that the monkey took to it kindly, and it seemed profitable to both parties. |