PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS,

Otago Witness, Issue 2167, 5 September 1895, Page 47

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS,

niaslioualaiMl audits Ruined Cities. ii. .After leaviDg the Khama Mr Bent vigited Maclontsie and Forb Tuli, two of tho company's mail posts, and then struck aside for the Zimbabwe ruins, which he spent considerable time in examining, the result! of which I shall give further on.

FORT VICTORIA

is described, but I don't tbink you will be charmed with the place, unless it is considerably improved. Ib lies on a bare plateau, surroundedin the rainy season by swamps, which pub nearly everybody down with fever. Seven shillings a pound for baoon, and the same prioe for a tin of jam ; the sight of rows of saddles taken from the back 3of tbe hundred and fifty horses that had recently died with the lung disease I mentioned last week ; a plentiful supply of fever, and a dread that thera would be a famine caused by the provision waggons b«ing unable to work their way up before the rainy season should properly set in ; unwholesome, because sour, vegetation for tho remaining cattle and the few horsea that had survived the " salting process "—the inoculation or vaccination I mentioned last week these are a few of the trifles calculated to bring out any Mark Tapley jollity you might possess if you were there. But many have confidence in the place, for 150 " stands "—I suppose it means sections— brought over £6000 within about a year of the foundation of the township, and someone has been enterprising enough to establish a newspaper — the Mashona Times and Mining Chronicle. Here Mr Bent got some horses and cattle warranted salted, and examined some more ruins by the way. Then the daub huts of

FORT SALISBURY were reached, the fort created from the same motive as the hoary Zimbabwe ruins— the thirst for gold, for most of the invaders are diggers the comparatively few being pioneer farmers and squatters. There it stood, 800 miles from the nearest railway, without telegraphic communication, during the rainy season cut off from the outer world, and handicapped by famine, fever, and continuous rain. Mr Bent was there when the first anniversary of the township was being celebrated. Four hundred provision waggons, all to come tbe 800 miles, were being anxiously looked for, and the company was being execrated because they had not arrived. But a banquet must be held, so brandy went up to £3 10s a bottle, champagne about ditto, and ham and jam, fed nearly as highly as at Victoria. But the

difficulties of life didn't keep hungry, impecunious gold seekers and tribes of adventurers from flocking to th« place, nor settlers from taking up land for pastoral and agricultural purposes. Nearly 2000 stands had been surveyed and £2250 worth sold, while 2,000,000 acres of land had been taken np. Bnt grants of land of 3000 acres were obtainable then at an annual quit rent of £3. If you go now it is 9d an acre plus quit rent. From Salisbury Mr Bent took the route to the coast, pasßirg through Umtali (the third in importance of the company's settlements) and Ohimoio (the present terminus of the railway from Beira), where hio expedition ended. , THE PLY, FEVER, AND SWAMP BELT. When Fort Salisbury was laid out it was not anticipated that any difficulty would be met with in making a road from Beira, a good port at the mouth of the Pungwe, up to the company's headquarters, but a little piece of animated nature, a fly, upset all calculations. The road was made, the signboard "To Mashonaland" was put up, richlypainted American coaches were put ou, scores of waggons and thousands o! pounds' worth of goods landed, for this short cut of perhaps 450 miles saved 400 miles of trekking plus railway fare of some hundreds of miles from Capetown to Vryberg. But the tsetse, grey in colour, with overlapping wings, and aboub the size of a horsefly— that tsetse which has no effect on human beings, and which is perfectly good friends with the zebra, the buffalo, and all native curs— has a doadly feud with all European horses, oxen, or dogs ; so everything lies along the veldt, ghostlike, as after a battle, including the special coach of the " Napoleon of South Africa," Mr Khodes, in the box seat of which ia a bottle labellod •' anti-fly mixture." Advertisements were circulated that tbe route was open, and miners and other adventurers flocked there, only to see huts overflowing with the skins of the animals that were to have pulled them along.

A great deal of the discomfort of tha Bdira route is now a thing of the past, for a railway crossirg .the Fly Belt has been opened to Chimoio, a distance of perhaps 200 miles, leaving 250 more to be done by the teams, which oharge abont £25 a ton cartage. It is intended to continue the railway to Salisbury, but that won't be for some time yet, for the rest of the line will be very expensive. A light line is also being pushed forward from Vryberg, so if any of my readers intend to visit this enormous and, in the past, exceedingly rich goldfleld, they will not have to face the dangers of the pioneers.

TIIK NATIYFS.

While the Zimbabwe ruins were the special object of Mr Bent's expedition, he devoted considerable time to the study of the natives, but I cannot possibly give anything like biß full account of them. Their food, dress, personal appearance, religion, musical instruments, implements, hunting accessories, their industries, are all fully entered into. As for fcod, they are not very particular what they put out of sight. Grain, fowls, eggs, wild oranges, lemonn, cucumbers, honey, sour beer, meat got by hunting, are right enough, but snakes, caterpiiars— tho latter makirjg nice pastry when mixed with millet meal— locusts— not so bad, I am told — rat*, and mice are their daintiest viands, and, horror of horror?, burnt cow dung I And why, thiuk you 1 To hupply a necessity of life for which they have the greatest craving, but which ia hardest to obtain. Dc Livingstone saw the natives burning rushes for the same purDOse, and the natives of New Guinea are willing to work a day for a handful of it, and exclaim with the old crone when eating the burnt dung cake—" Salt, salt ; good, good ! " for the ash contains nitre, their substitute for salt.

Because the natives aro almost nude, we must not imagine they have no desire to adorn themselves. Ladies have fashions all over the world, and in South Africa it rans maitly to the head. Mashers are found there, too. The Khama has quite a number of suits, but his son is generally ablo "to go one better." Mr Bent's native carriers, before making a special visit to a kraal, polished themselves like mahogany by chewing monkey nuts and rubbing their skins with the product, good-naturedly doing each other's backs and inaccessible parts. Jam and other tins were highly prized, for they made tin ornaments for their head gear, and quite tasteful, too. was their general get- up,, cays Mr Bent. Pages oould be written on the ladieß' fashions in hair building and ornamentation, but I shall only draw attention to one village where the women were so slatternly that they didn't do their hair v? at all, and when it got lorg and tangled and very much alive, they Bhaved it off and hursg it on, a tree, revealing to the world their bare dit figured pates.

lIKLIGION.

I must say a word on religion. Isn't ifc curious that, no matter how low ravages m-iy be, they have always an idea, more 'or less crude, of the future? But it is very difficult to get at the inner life of the savage. Such awe and mystery are attached to tho spiritual side of his life that it is ungetatablo. In South Africa they have a firm belief in an after life, and worship their ancestors, who often are looked upon ao being embodied in some animal, and who act as spiritual intercessors between them and the vague muale or God who lives in heaven. Mr Bent asked the priest of the lion god to enlighten him a little, but he only replied, " I dare not tell you anything or I shall become deaf. I like my gun, and if I were to tell you anything it would be taken away, and I should be no man." Whatever animal is the object of worship by a tribe— and each tribe has its own totem, as coming between them and the great god— it comes to no harm. A tribe near the Zambeßi revere corpulent lionß, m containing the Bona of their ancestors; and when the natives discover lions eating their, prey, they go on their knees at some distance off, and creep, clapping their hand* and begging them in all humility to remember their slates, who are hungry, and reminding them that when they were men they were always generous, so that the lions may retire and the negroes profit by what they leave behind. Now, when I had got on a little to-day I found I could not give an adequate idea of the Zimbabwe ruins and their origin, co I decided to let that part stand over ana deal with it solely, so it comes next vraek, •