Ranges Of Hills Appear Now To Run Parallel With The Zambesi, And Are About
Fifteen Miles Apart.
Those on the north approach nearest to the river.
The inhabitants on that side are the Batonga, those on the south bank
are the Banyai.
The hills abound in buffaloes, and elephants are numerous,
and many are killed by the people on both banks. They erect stages
on high trees overhanging the paths by which the elephants come,
and then use a large spear with a handle nearly as thick as a man's wrist,
and four or five feet long. When the animal comes beneath
they throw the spear, and if it enters between the ribs above,
as the blade is at least twenty inches long by two broad,
the motion of the handle, as it is aided by knocking against the trees,
makes frightful gashes within, and soon causes death. They kill them also
by means of a spear inserted in a beam of wood, which being suspended
on the branch of a tree by a cord attached to a latch fastened in the path,
and intended to be struck by the animal's foot, leads to the fall of the beam,
and, the spear being poisoned, causes death in a few hours.
We were detained by continuous rains several days at this island.
The clouds rested upon the tops of the hills as they came from the eastward,
and then poured down plenteous showers on the valleys below.
As soon as we could move, Tomba Nyama, the head man of the island,
volunteered the loan of a canoe to cross a small river, called the Chongwe,
which we found to be about fifty or sixty yards broad and flooded.
All this part of the country was well known to Sekwebu,
and he informed us that, when he passed through it as a boy,
the inhabitants possessed abundance of cattle, and there were no tsetse.
The existence of the insect now shows that it may return
in company with the larger game.
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