"And Has His Present A Cough Too," Remarked One Of
Our Party, "That It Does Not Come To Us?
Is this the way your chief
treats strangers, receives their present, and sends them no food in
return?" Our
Men thought Chikwanitsela an uncommonly stingy fellow;
but, as it was possible that some of them might yet wish to return
this way, they did not like to scold him more than this, which was
sufficiently to the point.
Men and women were busily engaged in preparing the ground for the
November planting. Large game was abundant; herds of elephants and
buffaloes came down to the river in the night, but were a long way
off by daylight. They soon adopt this habit in places where they are
hunted.
The plains we travel over are constantly varying in breadth,
according as the furrowed and wooded hills approach or recede from
the river. On the southern side we see the hill Bungwe, and the
long, level, wooded ridge Nyangombe, the first of a series bending
from the S.E. to the N.W. past the Zambesi. We shot an old pallah on
the 16th, and found that the poor animal had been visited with more
than the usual share of animal afflictions. He was stone-blind in
both eyes, had several tumours, and a broken leg, which showed no
symptoms of ever having begun to heal. Wild animals sometimes suffer
a great deal from disease, and wearily drag on a miserable existence
before relieved of it by some ravenous beast.
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