Level Plains--Vultures and other Birds--Diversity of Color in Flowers of the same Species--The Sundew--Twenty-seventh Attack of Fever--A River which flows in opposite Directions--Lake Dilolo the Watershed between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans--Position of Rocks--Sir Roderick Murchison's Explanation--Characteristics of the Rainy Season in connection with the Floods of the Zambesi and the Nile--Probable Reason of Difference in Amount of Rain South and North of the Equator--Arab Reports of Region east of Londa--Probable Watershed of the Zambesi and the Nile--Lake Dilolo--Reach Katema's Town: his renewed Hospitality; desire to appear like a White Man; ludicrous Departure--Jackdaws-- Ford southern Branch of Lake Dilolo--Small Fish--Project for a Makololo Village near the Confluence of the Leeba and the Leeambye--Hearty Welcome from Shinte--Kolimbota's Wound--Plant-seeds and Fruit-trees brought from Angola--Masiko and Limboa's Quarrel--Nyamoana now a Widow--Purchase Canoes and descend the Leeba--Herds of wild Animals on its Banks--Unsuccessful Buffalo-hunt--Frogs--Sinbad and the Tsetse-- Dispatch a Message to Manenko--Arrival of her Husband Sambanza--The Ceremony called Kasendi--Unexpected Fee for performing a surgical Operation--Social Condition of the Tribes--Desertion of Mboenga--Stratagem of Mambowe Hunters--Water-turtles--Charged by a Buffalo--Reception from the People of Libonta--Explain the Causes of our long Delay--Pitsane's Speech--Thanksgiving Services--Appearance of my "Braves"--Wonderful Kindness of the People.
After leaving the Kasai, we entered upon the extensive level plains which we had formerly found in a flooded condition. The water on them was not yet dried up, as it still remained in certain hollow spots. Vultures were seen floating in the air, showing that carrion was to be found; and, indeed, we saw several of the large game, but so exceedingly wild as to be unapproachable. Numbers of caterpillars mounted the stalks of grass, and many dragonflies and butterflies appeared, though this was winter. The caprimulgus or goat-sucker, swifts, and different kinds of swallows, with a fiery-red bee-eater in flocks, showed that the lowest temperature here does not destroy the insects on which they feed. Jet-black larks, with yellow shoulders, enliven the mornings with their songs, but they do not continue so long on the wing as ours, nor soar so high. We saw many of the pretty white ardea, and other water-birds, flying over the spots not yet dried up; and occasionally wild ducks, but these only in numbers sufficient to remind us that we were approaching the Zambesi, where every water-fowl has a home.
While passing across these interminable-looking plains, the eye rests with pleasure on a small flower, which exists in such numbers as to give its own hue to the ground. One broad band of yellow stretches across our path. On looking at the flowers which formed this golden carpet, we saw every variety of that color, from the palest lemon to the richest orange. Crossing a hundred yards of this, we came upon another broad band of the same flower, but blue, and this color is varied from the lightest tint to dark blue, and even purple. I had before observed the same flower possessing different colors in different parts of the country, and once a great number of liver-colored flowers, which elsewhere were yellow. Even the color of the birds changed with the district we passed through; but never before did I see such a marked change as from yellow to blue, repeated again and again on the same plain. Another beautiful plant attracted my attention so strongly on these plains that I dismounted to examine it. To my great delight I found it to be an old home acquaintance, a species of Drosera, closely resembling our own sundew ('Drosera Anglia'). The flower-stalk never attains a height of more than two or three inches, and the leaves are covered with reddish hairs, each of which has a drop of clammy fluid at its tip, making the whole appear as if spangled over with small diamonds. I noticed it first in the morning, and imagined the appearance was caused by the sun shining on drops of dew; but, as it continued to maintain its brilliancy during the heat of the day, I proceeded to investigate the cause of its beauty, and found that the points of the hairs exuded pure liquid, in, apparently, capsules of clear, glutinous matter. They were thus like dewdrops preserved from evaporation. The clammy fluid is intended to entrap insects, which, dying on the leaf, probably yield nutriment to the plant.