All The Other Birds Now Join In Full Chorus In The Mornings, And Two Of Them, At Least, Have Fine Loud Notes.

Chapter 28.

Beautiful Valley - Buffalo - My young Men kill two Elephants - The Hunt - Mode of measuring Height of live Elephants - Wild Animals smaller here than in the South, though their Food is more abundant - The Elephant a dainty Feeder - Semalembue - His Presents - Joy in prospect of living in Peace - Trade - His People's way of wearing their Hair - Their Mode of Salutation - Old Encampment - Sebituane's former Residence - Ford of Kafue - Hippopotami - Hills and Villages - Geological Formation - Prodigious Quantities of large Game - Their Tameness - Rains - Less Sickness than in the Journey to Loanda - Reason - Charge from an Elephant - Vast Amount of animal Life on the Zambesi - Water of River discolored - An Island with Buffaloes and Men on it - Native Devices for killing Game - Tsetse now in Country - Agricultural Industry - An Albino murdered by his Mother - "Guilty of Tlolo" - Women who make their Mouths "like those of Ducks" - First Symptom of the Slave-trade on this side - Selole's Hostility - An armed Party hoaxed - An Italian Marauder slain - Elephant's Tenacity of Life - A Word to young Sportsmen - Mr. Oswell's Adventure with an Elephant; narrow Escape - Mburuma's Village - Suspicious Conduct of his People - Guides attempt to detain us - The Village and People of Ma Mburuma - Character our Guides give of us.

13TH. The country is becoming very beautiful, and furrowed by deep valleys; the underlying rocks, being igneous, have yielded fertile soil. There is great abundance of large game. The buffaloes select open spots, and often eminences, as standing-places through the day. We crossed the Mbai, and found in its bed rocks of pink marble. Some little hills near it are capped by marble of beautiful whiteness, the underlying rock being igneous. Violent showers occur frequently on the hills, and cause such sudden sweeping floods in these rivulets, that five of our men, who had gone to the other side for firewood, were obliged to swim back. The temperature of the air is lowered considerably by the daily rains. Several times the thermometer at sunrise has been as low as 68 Deg., and 74 Deg. at sunset. Generally, however, it stood at from 72 Deg. to 74 Deg. at sunrise, 90 Deg. to 96 Deg. at midday, and 80 Deg. to 84 Deg. at sunset. The sensation, however, as before remarked, was not disagreeable.

14TH. We entered a most beautiful valley, abounding in large game. Finding a buffalo lying down, I went to secure him for our food. Three balls did not kill him, and, as he turned round as if for a charge, we ran for the shelter of some rocks. Before we gained them, we found that three elephants, probably attracted by the strange noise, had cut off our retreat on that side; they, however, turned short off, and allowed us to gain the rocks. We then saw that the buffalo was moving off quite briskly, and, in order not to be entirely balked, I tried a long shot at the last of the elephants, and, to the great joy of my people, broke his fore leg. The young men soon brought him to a stand, and one shot in the brain dispatched him. I was right glad to see the joy manifested at such an abundant supply of meat.

On the following day, while my men were cutting up the elephant, great numbers of the villagers came to enjoy the feast. We were on the side of a fine green valley, studded here and there with trees, and cut by numerous rivulets. I had retired from the noise, to take an observation among some rocks of laminated grit, when I beheld an elephant and her calf at the end of the valley, about two miles distant. The calf was rolling in the mud, and the dam was standing fanning herself with her great ears. As I looked at them through my glass, I saw a long string of my own men appearing on the other side of them, and Sekwebu came and told me that these had gone off saying, "Our father will see to-day what sort of men he has got." I then went higher up the side of the valley, in order to have a distinct view of their mode of hunting. The goodly beast, totally unconscious of the approach of an enemy, stood for some time suckling her young one, which seemed about two years old; they then went into a pit containing mud, and smeared themselves all over with it, the little one frisking about his dam, flapping his ears and tossing his trunk incessantly, in elephantine fashion. She kept flapping her ears and wagging her tail, as if in the height of enjoyment. Then began the piping of her enemies, which was performed by blowing into a tube, or the hands closed together, as boys do into a key. They call out to attract the animal's attention, "O chief! chief! we have come to kill you. O chief! chief! many more will die besides you, etc. The gods have said it," etc., etc. Both animals expanded their ears and listened, then left their bath as the crowd rushed toward them. The little one ran forward toward the end of the valley, but, seeing the men there, returned to his dam. She placed herself on the danger side of her calf, and passed her proboscis over it again and again, as if to assure it of safety. She frequently looked back to the men, who kept up an incessant shouting, singing, and piping; then looked at her young one and ran after it, sometimes sideways, as if her feelings were divided between anxiety to protect her offspring and desire to revenge the temerity of her persecutors. The men kept about a hundred yards in her rear, and some that distance from her flanks, and continued thus until she was obliged to cross a rivulet. The time spent in descending and getting up the opposite bank allowed of their coming up to the edge, and discharging their spears at about twenty yards distance.

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