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headquarters of the tribe is at Tsao, where the present chief Mutibe lives. He is the sixth chief since the migration, but the Batawana do not number a thousand. They give the impression of being a degenerate lot, which may in part be due to the fact that they have inter-married largely and in addition they have no doubt suffered from the enervating effects of living as a conquering people among a subjugated population. They have an inordinate conceit of themselves, and look down upon all the other local people with disdain, a fact which will explain why it is so difficult to get any accurate information in regard to any question not obviously involving their own interest. The death of some horses or cattle would, in their minds, be a matter of quite as much importance as mortality amongst their fellow inhabitants of a different race to themselves.
The Bakubwa are the original inhabitants of N'gamiland, and live for the most part among and around the marshes. From a physical point of view they are a fine, sturdy race-far superior in that respect to their Batawana masters. They are, however, a poor-spirited people, and appear quite content with their more or less servile condition.
The Masarwa are the river bushmen of the same stock as those found in the desert. They are scattered about the country in small communities and live for the most part by hunting, the proceeds of which, however, if of any value, they render to their Batawana masters.
The Banaja and Basabia are people of uncertain origin, but it is supposed that they migrated southwards from beyond the Zambezi and settled in N'gamiland as tributaries of the Batawana chiefs. They are to be found chiefly along the eastern border and in the vicinity of the Tamelekan River.
The Damara are refugees from German West Africa, and naturally are met with mainly on the western border.
II. Circumstances which led to the inquiry.
In the early part of December, 1908, Lieut. H. D. Hannay, Acting Magistrate of N'gamiland, heard that there had been a case of illness in the station at Tsao, the symptoms of which suggested the possibility of its being sleeping sickness. This information was not definitely reported to Mr. Hannay, but some native headmen were overheard discussing the matter among themselves, and the substance of their conversation was retailed to him. Thereupon he mentioned the subject to the Chief Mutibe, who at once stated that he was well acquainted with the fact that there was such a disease in the country and that there was a man called Masheana who was at the present time suffering from it. He further informed Mr. Hannay that the sick man bad until recently been in Tsao, but that he had lately gone to a village in the district of Thquamquau, about 70 miles away to the east in the direction of the Boro River. Further inquiries were then made by Mr. Hannay among the various headmen, but great difficulty was experienced in obtaining any definite information, as they all seemed reluctant to discuss the subject. When ques- tioned closely, however, they admitted the existence of a disease which caused exces- sive sleeping, and some of them stated that they had always heard that in the early days of their occupation of N'gamiland it had carried off a large number of the Masarwa and of the Batawana themselves.
The symptoms as described appear to Mr. Hannay to correspond closely, as far as his knowledge went, with those of sleeping sickness, and he accordingly reported the facts to the Acting Resident Commissioner, at the same time promising to make further inquiries. It was his intention to proceed to the village where the sick man was living, but he was prevented from doing so at once by other duties. A few weeks later, when he was preparing to go there, the Chief Mutibe informed him that the man was dead. In the meanwhile his first report had reached the Acting Resident Commissioner, and as a result of his representations I was asked to proceed at once to investigate the matter.
Up to the time of my arrival at Totin, on the lake, no details had reached me, and I knew nothing more than the fact that a case of suspected sleeping sickness had occurred in N'gamiland.
III.
On arriving at Totin on February 15th I learnt that the patient was dead, and that no other cases had been reported. I proceeded at once to the village where
the sick man was living at the time of his death, the approximate site of which is marked in the map as Masheana's Village," about eight miles east of Tsepetsele's
Post, between the latter and the Boro River. of half a dozen huts, situated on a swampy stream, inhabited by three or four It proved to be a small collection families of Bakubwa and Masarwa. hunting, and there were not present more than a dozen all told, counting men and Several of the men were reported to be away women and children.
None of them showed any signs of sleeping sickness, and all of them appeared quite healthy with the exception of one woman, who was manifestly ill and had a temperature of 103° F., but an examination of the blood showed that she was suffering from malaria (benign tertian). I took smears from five other individuals, but found nothing in them.
I was informed by the people that there were plenty of tsetse flies in the neigh- bourhood, but though I and my native staff, assisted by some of the men, searched on two successive days for three miles round we did not find any. ever, two specimens were captured by one of the natives, thus proving the existence Eventually, how- of Glossina (see note on Glossina).
Most of the information supplied to me by the people in regard to the dead man proved to be misleading or false, but fortunately I was enabled later to obtain more authentic data from the Mtawana headman Nakedi, in whose district the village is situated, and also from other people who had seen the sick man at Tsao.
IV.
After comparing all the evidence and omitting such as was irrelevant or doubt- ful, it would appear that the following are the facts in regard to the deceased man. Masheana, a fairly young man of the Batawana tribe, belonged to headman Nakedi's company. He was not well off, and though he lived at Tsao he went often to stay in the district of Thquamquau among some of the Bakubwa and Masarwa there, who are the serfs of Nakedi. In April, 1908, he returned to Tsao, after an absence
of about six months. He was then ill, and it transpired that he had been on a hunt- ing expedition not long before to the district of Thquamazuru, which lies somewhere near the Boro River.
He was accompanied on this trip by four men and three women. the names of the former being Makobe, Sakwe, Seghele, and Hakinasipi, the first two being Bakubwa and the other two Masarwa, who all belonged to the same village. Of these men I only saw one, Makobe, the other three being reported as away hunting, so presumably they were all in good health. perfectly well, and showed no signs of sleeping sickness. Of the women, one was The man Makobe was reported to be dead, but being only a Masarwa, no information was forthcoming as to the cause of her death. It was stated that she was a very old woman, and that she died after a short illness. One of the remaining women was Masheana's wife, and
it was she who was found to be suffering from malaria, while the third was a perfectly healthy young woman. According to the account given by the man Makobe, Masheana was not quite well, even when they started on their hunting trip. were away less than a month, during which time he was often unable to hunt.
They their return to the village Masheana left for Tsao, where, as stated before, he On arrived in April, 1908. During the time that he was at Tsao he became pro- gressively worse, and his symptoms, as described by Nakedi and others who saw him, were as follows:-He was very thin, but his belly was swollen; he was always drowsy, and would fall asleep suddenly while eating or talking; he had a very large appetite. There was no cough and no stomach or bowel symptoms. complain of any pain, but got gradually weaker, and finally returned to the village He did not in Thquamquau, where he died in January, 1909, having been ill nearly a year.
One of the witnesses stated, independently and not as a result of a leading question, that he noticed that he had sores on his head and some small swellings on his neck. This was not corroborated by anyone else.
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The course and symptoms as above described are certainly most suggestive of sleeping sickness, and in fact the disease from which he suffered is apparently known to the Batawana as Another term that they also use for the affection is "muhelelo," meaning a long gotsello," which means sleeping or drowsiness." time, referring to its long course. (See note on gotsello.)
Unfortunately, information obtained from native sources cannot be relied upon, and much of the evidence brought forward seemed somewhat contradictory and mythical. All the witnesses professed to know about gotsello, but in nearly every ease when pressed they had to admit that their evidence was either based upon hearsay or that it had reference to what had happened many years ago.
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