Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/156

 of men and animals, and nearly everywhere they are employed for carrying water, being frequently covered with a network of leather; but the vassal tribes of the Bechuanas, the Makalaharis, Barwas, Masarwas, and Madenassanas, not practising agriculture, use ostrich eggs instead. Most of the Bantu tribes preserve fatty substances in the medium-sized gourd-shells, and south of the Zambesi the very small shells are made into snuff-boxes, and some of a flattened cylindrical form are converted into musical instruments.

On the 13th I was joined by a Basuto named April, who had been travelling with Blockley, and was now on his way to get permission from Sepopo to hunt elephants on his territory. He had come in company with eighteen of the Masupias who were returning with Blockley’s merchandise, each man carrying a load of about 60 lbs. They brought word that probably Blockley himself would arrive in the evening, but he did not appear.

That night, for the first time, I heard the deep grunt of the hippopotamus.

In the course of a walk down the riverside next morning I came to some deserted farms of the Masupias, who had fled to the opposite shore after the destruction of the Manansa kingdom, and in several places along the valley I saw the graves of some Masupia chiefs. These graves were mere oval mounds, covered with antelope-skulls and elephant-tusks, so arranged that the points protruded and bent downwards; some were bleached and cracked by exposure, but the smaller ones, weighing about 20 lbs., near the centre of the graves, were generally in a better state of pre-