In The Country Above Zumbo
We Did Not Find A Vestige Of This Law; And But For The Fact
That
It existed in the country of the Bamapela, far to the south of this,
I should have been disposed to
Regard it in the same light as I do
the payment for leave to pass - an imposition levied on him
who is seen to be weak because in the hands of his slaves. The only game-laws
in the interior are, that the man who first wounds an animal,
though he has inflicted but a mere scratch, is considered the killer of it;
the second is entitled to a hind quarter, and the third to a fore leg.
The chiefs are generally entitled to a share as tribute; in some parts
it is the breast, in others the whole of the ribs and one fore leg.
I generally respected this law, although exceptions are sometimes made
when animals are killed by guns. The knowledge that he who succeeds
in reaching the wounded beast first is entitled to a share
stimulates the whole party to greater exertions in dispatching it.
One of my men, having a knowledge of elephant medicine, was considered
the leader in the hunt; he went before the others, examined the animals,
and on his decision all depended. If he decided to attack a herd,
the rest went boldly on; but if he declined, none of them would engage.
A certain part of the elephant belonged to him by right of the office he held,
and such was the faith in medicine held by the slaves of the Portuguese
whom we met hunting, that they offered to pay this man handsomely
if he would show them the elephant medicine.
When near Mosusa's village we passed a rivulet called Chowe, now running
with rain-water. The inhabitants there extract a little salt from the sand
when it is dry, and all the people of the adjacent country
come to purchase it from them. This was the first salt we had met with
since leaving Angola, for none is to be found in either
the country of the Balonda or Barotse; but we heard of salt-pans
about a fortnight west of Naliele, and I got a small supply from Mpololo
while there. That had long since been finished, and I had again
lived two months without salt, suffering no inconvenience except
an occasional longing for animal food or milk.
In marching along, the rich reddish-brown soil was so clammy
that it was very difficult to walk. It is, however, extremely fertile,
and the people cultivate amazing quantities of corn, maize, millet,
ground-nuts, pumpkins, and cucumbers. We observed that, when plants failed
in one spot, they were in the habit of transplanting them into another,
and they had also grown large numbers of young plants on the islands,
where they are favored by moisture from the river, and were now removing them
to the main land. The fact of their being obliged to do this shows
that there is less rain here than in Londa, for there we observed the grain
in all stages of its growth at the same time.
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