The
Nights Are Warmer Now, And Possess Nearly As Much Of Interest And
Novelty As The Days.
A new world awakes and comes forth, more
numerous, if we may judge by the noise it makes, than that which is
abroad by sunlight.
Lions and hyenas roar around us, and sometimes
come disagreeably near, though they have never ventured into our
midst. Strange birds sing their agreeable songs, while others scream
and call harshly as if in fear or anger. Marvellous insect-sounds
fall upon the ear; one, said by natives to proceed from a large
beetle, resembles a succession of measured musical blows upon an
anvil, while many others are perfectly indescribable. A little lemur
was once seen to leap about from branch to branch with the agility of
a frog; it chirruped like a bird, and is not larger than a robin red-
breast. Reptiles, though numerous, seldom troubled us; only two men
suffered from stings, and that very slightly, during the entire
journey, the one supposed that he was bitten by a snake, and the
other was stung by a scorpion.
Grass-burning has begun, and is producing the blue hazy atmosphere of
the American Indian summer, which in Western Africa is called the
"smokes." Miles of fire burn on the mountain-sides in the evenings,
but go out during the night. From their height they resemble a broad
zigzag line of fire in the heavens.
We slept on the night of the 6th of July on the left bank of the
Chongwe, which comes through a gap in the hills on our right, and is
twenty yards wide.
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