A Dark Coloured
Hippopotamus Stood Alone, As If Expelled From The Herd, And Bit The
Water, Shaking His Head From Side To Side In A Most Frantic Manner.
When The Female Has Twins, She Is Said To Kill One Of Them.
We touched at the beautiful tree-covered island of Kalabi, opposite
where Tuba-mokoro lectured the lion in our way up.
The ancestors of
the people who now inhabit this island possessed cattle. The tsetse
has taken possession of the country since "the beeves were lifted."
No one knows where these insects breed; at a certain season all
disappear, and as suddenly come back, no one knows whence. The
natives are such close observers of nature, that their ignorance in
this case surprised us. A solitary hippopotamus had selected the
little bay in which we landed, and where the women drew water, for
his dwelling-place. Pretty little lizards, with light blue and red
tails, run among the rocks, catching flies and other insects. These
harmless - though to new-comers repulsive - creatures sometimes perform
good service to man, by eating great numbers of the destructive white
ants.
At noon on the 24th October, we found Sequasha in a village below the
Kafue, with the main body of his people. He said that 210 elephants
had been killed during his trip; many of his men being excellent
hunters. The numbers of animals we saw renders this possible. He
reported that, after reaching the Kafue, he went northwards into the
country of the Zulus, whose ancestors formerly migrated from the
south and set up a sort of Republican form of government.
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