The Young, Which Had Come Out Of The Nests Where We Spent The Night,
Did Not Appear Wary; They Were About Ten Inches Long, With Yellow Eyes,
And Pupil Merely A Perpendicular Slit.
They were all marked
with transverse slips of pale green and brown, half an inch broad.
When speared, they
Bit the weapon savagely, though their teeth
were but partially developed, uttering at the same time a sharp bark
like that of a whelp when it first begins to use its voice.
I could not ascertain whether the dam devours them, as reported,
or whether the ichneumon has the same reputation here as in Egypt.
Probably the Barotse and Bayeiye would not look upon it as a benefactor;
they prefer to eat the eggs themselves, and be their own ichneumons.
The white of the egg does not coagulate, but the yolk does,
and this is the only part eaten.
As the population increases, the alligators will decrease, for their nests
will be oftener found; the principal check on their inordinate multiplication
seems to be man. They are more savage and commit more mischief
in the Leeambye than in any other river. After dancing long
in the moonlight nights, young men run down to the water to wash off the dust
and cool themselves before going to bed, and are thus often carried away.
One wonders they are not afraid; but the fact is, they have as little
sense of danger impending over them as the hare has when not actually pursued
by the hound, and in many rencounters, in which they escape,
they had not time to be afraid, and only laugh at the circumstance afterward:
there is a want of calm reflection. In many cases, not referred to
in this book, I feel more horror now in thinking on dangers I have run
than I did at the time of their occurrence.
When we reached the part of the river opposite to the village of Manenko,
the first female chief whom we encountered, two of the people called Balunda,
or Balonda, came to us in their little canoe. From them we learned
that Kolimbota, one of our party, who had been in the habit of visiting
these parts, was believed by the Balonda to have acted as a guide
to the marauders under Lerimo, whose captives we were now returning.
They very naturally suspected this, from the facility with which
their villages had been found, and, as they had since removed them
to some distance from the river, they were unwilling to lead us
to their places of concealment. We were in bad repute, but,
having a captive boy and girl to show in evidence of Sekeletu and ourselves
not being partakers in the guilt of inferior men, I could freely express
my desire that all should live in peace. They evidently felt
that I ought to have taught the Makololo first, before coming to them,
for they remarked that what I advanced was very good, but guilt lay
at the door of the Makololo for disturbing the previously existing peace.
They then went away to report us to Manenko.
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