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.
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