The Great
Slave Route To Kilwa Runs Up The Banks Of This River, Which Is Only
Ankle-Deep At The Dry Season Of The Year.
The Rovuma itself comes
from the W.N.W., and after the traveller passes the confluence of the
Liende at Ngomano or "meeting-place," the chief of which part is
named Ndonde, he finds the river narrow, and the people Ajawa.
Crocodiles in the Rovuma have a sorry time of it. Never before were
reptiles so persecuted and snubbed. They are hunted with spears, and
spring traps are set for them. If one of them enters an inviting
pool after fish, he soon finds a fence thrown round it, and a spring
trap set in the only path out of the enclosure. Their flesh is
eaten, and relished. The banks, on which the female lays her eggs by
night, are carefully searched by day, and all the eggs dug out and
devoured. The fish-hawk makes havoc among the few young ones that
escape their other enemies. Our men were constantly on the look-out
for crocodiles' nests. One was found containing thirty-five newly-
laid eggs, and they declared that the crocodile would lay as many
more the second night in another place. The eggs were a foot deep in
the sand on the top of a bank ten feet high. The animal digs a hole
with its foot, covers the eggs, and leaves them till the river rises
over the nest in about three months afterwards, when she comes back,
and assists the young ones out.
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