There Are Remarkably Few
Small Animals, They Having Been Hunted Almost To Extermination,
And Few Insects Except Ants, Which Abound In Considerable Number And Variety.
There Are Scarcely Any Common Flies To Be Seen, Nor Are We Ever Troubled
By Mosquitoes.
The air is still, hot, and oppressive; the intensely bright sunlight
glances peacefully on the evergreen forest leaves, and all feel glad
when the path comes into the shade.
The want of life in the scenery
made me long to tread again the banks of the Zambesi, and see
the graceful antelopes feeding beside the dark buffaloes and sleek elands.
Here hippopotami are known to exist only by their footprints on the banks.
Not one is ever seen to blow or put his head up at all;
they have learned to breathe in silence and keep out of sight.
We never heard one uttering the snorting sound so common on the Zambesi.
We crossed two small streams, the Kanesi and Fombeji, before reaching Cabango,
a village situated on the banks of the Chihombo. The country was becoming
more densely peopled as we proceeded, but it bears no population
compared to what it might easily sustain. Provisions were to be had
in great abundance; a fowl and basket of meal weighing 20 lbs.
were sold for a yard and a half of very inferior cotton cloth,
worth not more than threepence. An idea of the cheapness of food
may be formed from the fact that Captain Neves purchased 380 lbs.
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