They Presented Me With Three Fine Water-Turtles,*
One Of Which, When Cooked, Had Upward Of Forty Eggs In Its Body.
The Shell Of The Egg Is Flexible, And It Is Of The Same Size At Both Ends,
Like Those Of The Alligator.
The flesh, and especially the liver,
is excellent.
The hunters informed us that, when the message
inculcating peace among the tribes came to Masiko, the common people
were so glad at the prospect of "binding up the spears",
that they ran to the river, and bathed and plunged in it for joy. This party
had been sent by Masiko to the Makololo for aid to repel their enemy,
but, afraid to go thither, had spent the time in hunting.
They have a dread of the Makololo, and hence the joy they expressed
when peace was proclaimed. The Mambowe hunters were much alarmed
until my name was mentioned. They then joined our party,
and on the following day discovered a hippopotamus dead,
which they had previously wounded. This was the first feast of flesh
my men had enjoyed, for, though the game was wonderfully abundant,
I had quite got out of the way of shooting, and missed perpetually.
Once I went with the determination of getting so close that I should not miss
a zebra. We went along one of the branches that stretch out from the river
in a small canoe, and two men, stooping down as low as they could,
paddled it slowly along to an open space near to a herd of zebras and pokus.
Peering over the edge of the canoe, the open space seemed
like a patch of wet ground, such as is often seen on the banks of a river,
made smooth as the resting-place of alligators.
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