As this attempt at quarantine was evidently the suggestion of native doctors to increase their own importance, we added that we had no food, and would hunt next day for game, and the day after; and, should we be still ordered purification by their medicine, we should then return to our own country.
The message was not all of our dictation, our companions interlarded it with their own indignant protests, and said some strong things in the Tette dialect about these "doctor things" keeping them back from seeing their father; when to their surprise Mochokotsa told them he knew every word they were saying, as he was of the tribe Bazizulu, and defied them to deceive him by any dialect, either of the Mashona on the east, or of the Mambari on the west.

Mochokotsa then repeated our message twice, to be sure that he had it every word, and went back again.

These chiefs' messengers have most retentive memories; they carry messages of considerable length great distances, and deliver them almost word for word.

Two or three usually go together, and when on the way the message is rehearsed every night, in order that the exact words may be kept to.
One of the native objections to learning to write is, that these men answer the purpose of transmitting intelligence to a distance as well as a letter would; and, if a person wishes to communicate with any one in the town, the best way to do so is either to go to or send for him.

And as for corresponding with friends very far off, that is all very well for white people, but the blacks have no friends to whom to write.