An Elephant-hunt - Offering and Prayers to the Barimo for Success -
Native Mode of Expression - Working of Game-laws
- A Feast -
Laughing Hyaenas - Numerous Insects - Curious Notes of Birds of Song -
Caterpillars - Butterflies - Silica - The Fruit Makoronga and Elephants
- Rhinoceros Adventure - Korwe Bird - Its Nest - A real Confinement -
Honey and Beeswax - Superstitious Reverence for the Lion -
Slow Traveling - Grapes - The Ue - Monina's Village -
Native Names - Government of the Banyai - Electing a Chief -
Youths instructed in "Bonyai" - Suspected of Falsehood -
War-dance - Insanity and Disappearance of Monahin - Fruitless Search -
Monina's Sympathy - The Sand-river Tangwe - The Ordeal Muavi:
its Victims - An unreasonable Man - "Woman's Rights" -
Presents - Temperance - A winding Course to shun Villages -
Banyai Complexion and Hair - Mushrooms - The Tubers, Mokuri -
The Tree Shekabakadzi - Face of the Country - Pot-holes -
Pursued by a Party of Natives - Unpleasant Threat -
Aroused by a Company of Soldiers - A civilized Breakfast -
Arrival at Tete.
14TH. We left Nyampungo this morning. The path wound up the Molinge,
another sand-river which flows into the Nake. When we got clear
of the tangled jungle which covers the banks of these rivulets,
we entered the Mopane country, where we could walk with comfort.
When we had gone on a few hours, my men espied an elephant,
and were soon in full pursuit. They were in want of meat,
having tasted nothing but grain for several days. The desire for animal food
made them all eager to slay him, and, though an old bull, he was soon killed.
The people of Nyampungo had never seen such desperadoes before.
One rushed up and hamstrung the beast, while still standing,
by a blow with an axe. Some Banyai elephant-hunters happened to be present
when my men were fighting with him. One of them took out his snuff-box,
and poured out all its contents at the root of a tree
as an offering to the Barimo for success. As soon as the animal fell,
the whole of my party engaged in a wild, savage dance round the body,
which quite frightened the Banyai, and he who made the offering said to me,
"I see you are traveling with people who don't know how to pray:
I therefore offered the only thing I had in their behalf,
and the elephant soon fell." One of Nyampungo's men, who remained with me,
ran a little forward, when an opening in the trees gave us
a view of the chase, and uttered loud prayers for success in the combat.
I admired the devout belief they all possessed in the actual existence
of unseen beings, and prayed that they might yet know that benignant One
who views us all as his own. My own people, who are rather a degraded lot,
remarked to me as I came up, "God gave it to us. He said to the old beast,
`Go up there; men are come who will kill and eat you.'" These remarks
are quoted to give the reader an idea of the native mode of expression.
As we were now in the country of stringent game-laws, we were obliged
to send all the way back to Nyampungo, to give information to a certain person
who had been left there by the real owner of this district
to watch over his property, the owner himself living near the Zambesi.
The side upon which the elephant fell had a short, broken tusk;
the upper one, which was ours, was large and thick. The Banyai remarked
on our good luck. The men sent to give notice came back
late in the afternoon of the following day. They brought a basket of corn,
a fowl, and a few strings of handsome beads, as a sort of thank-offering
for our having killed it on their land, and said they had thanked
the Barimo besides for our success, adding, "There it is; eat it and be glad."
Had we begun to cut it up before we got this permission,
we should have lost the whole. They had brought a large party
to eat their half, and they divided it with us in a friendly way.
My men were delighted with the feast, though, by lying unopened a whole day,
the carcass was pretty far gone. An astonishing number of hyaenas
collected round, and kept up a loud laughter for two whole nights.
Some of them do make a very good imitation of a laugh. I asked my men
what the hyaenas were laughing at, as they usually give animals credit
for a share of intelligence. They said that they were laughing
because we could not take the whole, and that they would have plenty to eat
as well as we.
On coming to the part where the elephant was slain, we passed through grass
so tall that it reminded me of that in the valley of Cassange.
Insects are very numerous after the rains commence. While waiting
by the elephant, I observed a great number of insects,
like grains of fine sand, moving on my boxes. On examination with a glass,
four species were apparent; one of green and gold preening its wings,
which glanced in the sun with metallic lustre; another clear as crystal;
a third of the color of vermilion; and a fourth black. These are probably
some of those which consume the seeds of every plant that grows.
Almost every kind has its own peculiar insect, and when the rains are over
very few seeds remain untouched. The rankest poisons,
as the Kongwhane and Euphorbia, are soon devoured; the former
has a scarlet insect; and even the fiery bird's-eye pepper,
which will keep off many others from their own seeds, is itself devoured
by a maggot. I observed here, what I had often seen before,
that certain districts abound in centipedes. Here they have
light reddish bodies and blue legs; great myriapedes are seen
crawling every where. Although they do no harm, they excite in man
a feeling of loathing. Perhaps our appearance produces a similar feeling
in the elephant and other large animals.
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