The Bows And
Poisoned Arrows Here Are Of Superior Workmanship To Those Below.
Mariano's Slave-Hunting Parties Stood In Great Awe Of These Barbed
Arrows, And Long Kept Aloof From Tingane's Villages.
His people were
friendly enough with us now, and covered the banks with a variety of
articles for sale.
The majestic mountain, Chipirone, to which we
have given the name of Mount Clarendon, now looms in sight, and
further to the N.W. the southern end of the grand Milanje range rises
in the form of an unfinished sphinx looking down on Lake Shirwa. The
Ruo (16 degrees 31 minutes 0 seconds S.) is said to have its source
in the Milanje mountains, and flows to the S.W., to join the Shire
some distance above Tingane's. A short way beyond the Ruo lies the
Elephant marsh, or Nyanja Mukulu, which is frequented by vast herds
of these animals. We believe that we counted eight hundred elephants
in sight at once. In the choice of such a strong hold, they have
shown their usual sagacity, for no hunter can get near them through
the swamps. They now keep far from the steamer; but, when she first
came up, we steamed into the midst of a herd, and some were shot from
the ship's deck. A single lesson was sufficient to teach them that
the steamer was a thing to be avoided; and at the first glimpse they
are now off two or three miles to the midst of the marsh, which is
furrowed in every direction by wandering branches of the Shire. A
fine young elephant was here caught alive, as he was climbing up the
bank to follow his retreating dam. When laid hold of, he screamed
with so much energy that, to escape a visit from the enraged mother,
we steamed off, and dragged him through the water by the proboscis.
As the men were holding his trunk over the gunwale, Monga, a brave
Makololo elephant-hunter, rushed aft, and drew his knife across it in
a sort of frenzy peculiar to the chase. The wound was skilfully sewn
up, and the young animal soon became quite tame, but, unfortunately
the breathing prevented the cut from healing, and he died in a few
days from loss of blood. Had he lived, and had we been able to bring
him home, he would have been the first AFRICAN elephant ever seen in
England. The African male elephant is from ten to a little over
eleven feet in height, and differs from the Asiatic species more
particularly in the convex shape of his forehead, and the enormous
size of his ears. In Asia many of the males, and all the females,
are without tusks, but in Africa both sexes are provided with these
weapons. The enamel in the molar teeth is arranged differently in
the two species. By an admirable provision, new teeth constantly
come up at the part where in man the wisdom teeth appear, and these
push the others along, and out at the front end of the jaws, thus
keeping the molars sound by renewal, till the animal attains a very
great age.
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