He had wounded it first, and the
established native game-law is that the animal belongs to the man who
first draws blood; the two legs on one side, by the same law,
belonged to us for killing it.
This beast was very old, blind of one
eye, and scabby; the horns, mere stumps, not a foot long, must have
atrophied, when by age he lost the strength distinctive of his sex;
some eighteen or twenty inches of horn could not well be worn down by
mere rubbing against the trees. We saw many buffaloes next day,
standing quietly amidst a thick thorn-jungle, through which we were
passing. They often stood until we were within fifty or a hundred
yards of them.
On the 14th July we left the river at the mountain-range, which,
lying north-east and south-west across the river, forms the Kariba
gorge. Near the upper end of the Kariba rapids, the stream Sanyati
enters from the south, and is reported to have Moselekatse's
principal cattle-posts at its sources; our route went round the end
of the mountains, and we encamped beside the village of the generous
chief Moloi, who brought us three immense baskets of fine mapira
meal, ten fowls, and two pots of beer. On receiving a present in
return, he rose, and, with a few dancing gestures, said or sang,
"Motota, Motota, Motota," which our men translated into "thanks." He
had visited Moselekatse a few months before our arrival, and saw the
English missionaries, living in their wagons.
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