It Took Two More
Jacob's Shells, And Five Other Large Solid Rifle-Balls To Finish The
Beast At Last.
These old surly buffaloes had been wandering about in
a sort of miserable fellowship; their skins were diseased and scabby,
as if leprous, and their horns atrophied or worn down to stumps - the
first was killed outright, by one Jacob's shell, the second died
hard.
There is so much difference in the tenacity of life in wounded
animals of the same species, that the inquiry is suggested where the
seat of life can be? - We have seen a buffalo live long enough, after
a large bullet had passed right through the heart, to allow firm
adherent clots to be formed in the two holes.
One day's journey above Sinamane's, a mass of mountain called
Gorongue, or Golongwe, is said to cross the river, and the rent
through which the river passes is, by native report, quite fearful to
behold. The country round it is so rocky, that our companions
dreaded the fatigue, and were not much to blame, if, as is probably
the case, the way be worse than that over which we travelled. As we
trudged along over the black slag-like rocks, the almost leafless
trees affording no shade, the heat was quite as great as Europeans
could bear. It was 102 degrees in the shade, and a thermometer
placed under the tongue or armpit showed that our blood was 99.5
degrees, or 1.5 degrees hotter than that of the natives, which stood
at 98 degrees. Our shoes, however, enable us to pass over the hot
burning soil better than they can. Many of those who wear sandals
have corns on the sides of the feet, and on the heels, where the
straps pass. We have seen instances, too, where neither sandals nor
shoes were worn, of corns on the soles of the feet. It is, moreover,
not at all uncommon to see toes cocked up, as if pressed out of their
proper places; at home, we should have unhesitatingly ascribed this
to the vicious fashions perversely followed by our shoemakers.
On the 5th, after crossing some hills, we rested at the village of
Simariango. The bellows of the blacksmith here were somewhat
different from the common goatskin bags, and more like those seen in
Madagascar. They consisted of two wooden vessels, like a lady's
bandbox of small dimensions, the upper ends of which were covered
with leather, and looked something like the heads of drums, except
that the leather bagged in the centre. They were fitted with long
nozzles, through which the air was driven by working the loose
covering of the tops up and down by means of a small piece of wood
attached to their centres. The blacksmith said that tin was obtained
from a people in the north, called Marendi, and that he had made it
into bracelets; we had never heard before of tin being found in the
country.
Our course then lay down the bed of a rivulet, called Mapatizia, in
which there was much calc spar, with calcareous schist, and then the
Tette grey sandstone, which usually overlies coal.
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