She Is Said Sometimes
To Hatch Two Eggs, And, When The Young Of These Are Full-Fledged,
Other Two Are Just Out Of The Egg-Shells:
She then leaves the nest with
the two elder, the orifice is again plastered up, and both male and female
attend to the wants of the young which are left.
On several occasions
I observed a branch bearing the marks of the male having often sat upon it
when feeding his mate, and the excreta had been expelled a full yard
from the orifice, and often proved a means of discovering the retreat.
The honey-guides were very assiduous in their friendly offices,
and enabled my men to get a large quantity of honey. But, though bees abound,
the wax of these parts forms no article of trade. In Londa it may be said
to be fully cared for, as you find hives placed upon trees
in the most lonesome forests. We often met strings of carriers
laden with large blocks of this substance, each 80 or 100 lbs. in weight,
and pieces were offered to us for sale at every village;
but here we never saw a single artificial hive. The bees were always found
in the natural cavities of mopane-trees. It is probable that
the good market for wax afforded to Angola by the churches of Brazil
led to the gradual development of that branch of commerce there.
I saw even on the banks of the Quango as much as sixpence paid for a pound.
In many parts of the Batoka country bees exist in vast numbers,
and the tribute due to Sekeletu is often paid in large jars of honey;
but, having no market nor use for the wax, it is thrown away. This was
the case also with ivory at the Lake Ngami, at the period of its discovery.
The reports brought by my other party from Loanda of the value of wax
had induced some of my present companions to bring small quantities of it
to Tete, but, not knowing the proper mode of preparing it,
it was so dark colored that no one would purchase it; I afterward saw
a little at Kilimane which had been procured from the natives
somewhere in this region.
Though we are now approaching the Portuguese settlement,
the country is still full of large game. My men killed six buffalo calves
out of a herd we met. The abundance of these animals, and also of antelopes,
shows the insufficiency of the bow and arrow to lessen their numbers.
There are also a great many lions and hyaenas, and there is no check
upon the increase of the former, for the people, believing that
the souls of their chiefs enter into them, never attempt to kill them;
they even believe that a chief may metamorphose himself into a lion,
kill any one he chooses, and then return to the human form;
therefore, when they see one, they commence clapping their hands,
which is the usual mode of salutation here. The consequence is,
that lions and hyaenas are so abundant that we see little huts
made in the trees, indicating the places where some of the inhabitants
have slept when benighted in the fields. As numbers of my men frequently left
the line of march in order to take out the korwes from their nests,
or follow the honey-guides, they excited the astonishment of our guides,
who were constantly warning them of the danger they thereby incurred
from lions. I was often considerably ahead of the main body of my men
on this account, and was obliged to stop every hour or two; but,
the sun being excessively hot by day, I was glad of the excuse for resting.
We could make no such prodigious strides as officers in the Arctic regions
are able to do. Ten or twelve miles a day were a good march
for both the men and myself; and it was not the length of the marches,
but continuing day after day to perform the same distance,
that was so fatiguing. It was in this case much longer
than appears on the map, because we kept out of the way of villages.
I drank less than the natives when riding, but all my clothing was now
constantly damp from the moisture which was imbibed in large quantities
at every pond. One does not stay on these occasions to prepare water
with alum or any thing else, but drinks any amount without fear.
I never felt the atmosphere so steamy as on the low-lying lands
of the Zambesi, and yet it was becoming cooler than it was on the highlands.
We crossed the rivulets Kapopo and Ue, now running, but usually dry.
There are great numbers of wild grape-vines growing in this quarter;
indeed, they abound every where along the banks of the Zambesi.
In the Batoka country there is a variety which yields
a black grape of considerable sweetness. The leaves are very large and harsh,
as if capable of withstanding the rays of this hot sun;
but the most common kinds - one with a round leaf and a greenish grape,
and another with a leaf closely resembling that of the cultivated varieties,
and with dark or purple fruit - have large seeds, which are
strongly astringent, and render it a disagreeable fruit.
The natives eat all the varieties; and I tasted vinegar made by a Portuguese
from these grapes. Probably a country which yields the wild vines
so very abundantly might be a fit one for the cultivated species.
At this part of the journey so many of the vines had run across
the little footpath we followed that one had to be constantly on the watch
to avoid being tripped. The ground was covered with rounded shingle,
which was not easily seen among the grass. Pedestrianism may be all very well
for those whose obesity requires much exercise, but for one who was becoming
as thin as a lath, through the constant perspiration caused
by marching day after day in the hot sun, the only good I saw in it
was that it gave an honest sort of man a vivid idea of the tread-mill.
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