Seed-Vessels Are Scattered Every Where By These Appendages.
One Lies Flat As A Shilling With Two Thorns In Its Centre,
Ready To Run Into The Foot Of Any Animal That Treads Upon It, And Stick There
For Days Together.
Another (the `Uncaria procumbens', or Grapple-plant)
has so many hooked thorns as to cling most tenaciously to any animal to which
it may become attached; when it happens to lay hold of the mouth of an ox,
the animal stands and roars with pain and a sense of helplessness.
Whenever a part of the forest has been cleared for a garden,
and afterward abandoned, a species of plant, with leaves like those of ginger,
springs up, and contends for the possession of the soil
with a great crop of ferns. This is the case all the way down to Angola,
and shows the great difference of climate between this
and the Bechuana country, where a fern, except one or two hardy species,
is never seen. The plants above mentioned bear a pretty pink flower
close to the ground, which is succeeded by a scarlet fruit full of seeds,
yielding, as so many fruits in this country do, a pleasant acid juice,
which, like the rest, is probably intended as a corrective
to the fluids of the system in the hot climate.
On leaving the Chihune we crossed the Longe, and, as the day was cloudy,
our guides wandered in a forest away to the west till we came
to the River Chihombo, flowing to the E.N.E. My men depended so much
on the sun for guidance that, having seen nothing of the luminary all day,
they thought we had wandered back to the Chiboque, and, as often happens
when bewildered, they disputed as to the point where the sun should rise
next morning. As soon as the rains would allow next day,
we went off to the N.E. It would have been better to have traveled
by compass alone, for the guides took advantage of any fears
expressed by my people, and threatened to return if presents
were not made at once. But my men had never left their own country before
except for rapine and murder. When they formerly came to a village
they were in the habit of killing numbers of the inhabitants,
and then taking a few young men to serve as guides to the next place.
As this was their first attempt at an opposite line of conduct,
and as they were without their shields, they felt defenseless
among the greedy Chiboque, and some allowance must be made for them
on that account.
SATURDAY, 11TH. Reached a small village on the banks of a narrow stream.
I was too ill to go out of my little covering except to quell a mutiny
which began to show itself among some of the Batoka and Ambonda of our party.
They grumbled, as they often do against their chiefs, when they think them
partial in their gifts, because they supposed that I had shown a preference
in the distribution of the beads; but the beads I had given
to my principal men were only sufficient to purchase a scanty meal,
and I had hastened on to this village in order to slaughter a tired ox,
and give them all a feast as well as a rest on Sunday,
as preparation for the journey before us.
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