I Am Inclined To Believe This,
Because, Though The Antelopes, As The Pallahs, Etc., Are Frequently
In Separate Herds, They
Are never seen in the act of expelling the males.
There may be some other reason in the case of
The elephants;
but the male and female elephants are never seen in one herd.
The young males remain with their dams only until they are full grown;
and so constantly is the separation maintained, that any one
familiar with them, on seeing a picture with the sexes mixed,
would immediately conclude that the artist had made it from his imagination,
and not from sight.
DECEMBER 2, 1855. We remained near a small hill, called Maundo, where we
began to be frequently invited by the honey-guide (`Cuculus indicator').
Wishing to ascertain the truth of the native assertion
that this bird is a deceiver, and by its call sometimes leads
to a wild beast and not to honey, I inquired if any of my men
had ever been led by this friendly little bird to any thing else
than what its name implies. Only one of the 114 could say
he had been led to an elephant instead of a hive, like myself
with the black rhinoceros mentioned before. I am quite convinced
that the majority of people who commit themselves to its guidance
are led to honey, and to it alone.
On the 3d we crossed the River Mozuma, or River of Dila,
having traveled through a beautifully undulating pastoral country.
To the south, and a little east of this, stands the hill Taba Cheu,
or "White Mountain", from a mass of white rock, probably dolomite,
on its top. But none of the hills are of any great altitude.
When I heard this mountain described at Linyanti I thought
the glistening substance might be snow, and my informants were so loud
in their assertions of its exceeding great altitude that I was startled
with the idea; but I had quite forgotten that I was speaking with men
who had been accustomed to plains, and knew nothing of very high mountains.
When I inquired what the white substance was, they at once replied
it was a kind of rock. I expected to have come nearer to it,
and would have ascended it; but we were led to go to the northeast.
Yet I doubt not that the native testimony of its being stone is true.
The distant ranges of hills which line the banks of the Zambesi
on the southeast, and landscapes which permit the eye to range
over twenty or thirty miles at a time, with short grass under our feet,
were especially refreshing sights to those who had traveled
for months together over the confined views of the flat forest,
and among the tangled rank herbage of the great valley.
The Mozuma, or River of Dila, was the first water-course which indicated
that we were now on the slopes toward the eastern coast.
It contained no flowing water, but revealed in its banks
what gave me great pleasure at the time - pieces of lignite,
possibly indicating the existence of a mineral, namely, coal,
the want of which in the central country I had always deplored.
Again and again we came to the ruins of large towns,
containing the only hieroglyphics of this country, worn mill-stones,
with the round ball of quartz with which the grinding was effected.
Great numbers of these balls were lying about, showing that the depopulation
had been the result of war; for, had the people removed in peace,
they would have taken the balls with them.
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