The Monkey Is A Sacred
Animal In This Region, And Is Never Molested Or Killed, Because The
People Believe Devoutly
That the souls of their ancestors now occupy
these degraded forms, and anticipate that they themselves must,
sooner or later,
Be transformed in like manner; a future as cheerless
for the black as the spirit-rapper's heaven is for the whites. The
gardens are separated from each other by a single row of small
stones, a few handfuls of grass, or a slight furrow made by the hoe.
Some are enclosed by a reed fence of the flimsiest construction, yet
sufficient to keep out the ever wary hippopotamus, who dreads a trap.
His extreme caution is taken advantage of by the women, who hang, as
a miniature trap-beam, a kigelia fruit with a bit of stick in the
end. This protects the maize, of which he is excessively fond.
The quantity of hippopotamus meat eaten by our men made some of them
ill, and our marches were necessarily short. After three hours'
travel on the 13th, we spent the remainder of the day at the village
of Chasiribera, on a rivulet flowing through a beautiful valley to
the north, which is bounded by magnificent mountain-ranges. Pinkwe,
or Mbingwe, otherwise Moeu, forms the south-eastern angle of the
range. On the 16th June we were at the flourishing village of Senga,
under the headman Manyame, which lies at the foot of the mount
Motemwa. Nearly all the mountains in this country are covered with
open forest and grass, in colour, according to the season, green or
yellow. Many are between 2000 and 3000 feet high, with the sky line
fringed with trees; the rocks show just sufficiently for one to
observe their stratification, or their granitic form, and though not
covered with dense masses of climbing plants, like those in moister
eastern climates, there is still the idea conveyed that most of the
steep sides are fertile, and none give the impression of that
barrenness which, in northern mountains, suggests the idea that the
bones of the world are sticking through its skin.
The villagers reported that we were on the footsteps of a Portuguese
half-caste, who, at Senga, lately tried to purchase ivory, but, in
consequence of his having murdered a chief near Zumbo and twenty of
his men, the people declined to trade with him. He threatened to
take the ivory by force, if they would not sell it; but that same
night the ivory and the women were spirited out of the village, and
only a large body of armed men remained. The trader, fearing that he
might come off second best if it came to blows, immediately departed.
Chikwanitsela, or Sekuanangila, is the paramount chief of some fifty
miles of the northern bank of the Zambesi in this locality. He lives
on the opposite, or southern side, and there his territory is still
more extensive. We sent him a present from Senga, and were informed
by a messenger next morning that he had a cough and could not come
over to see us. "And has his present a cough too," remarked one of
our party, "that it does not come to us? Is this the way your chief
treats strangers, receives their present, and sends them no food in
return?" Our men thought Chikwanitsela an uncommonly stingy fellow;
but, as it was possible that some of them might yet wish to return
this way, they did not like to scold him more than this, which was
sufficiently to the point.
Men and women were busily engaged in preparing the ground for the
November planting. Large game was abundant; herds of elephants and
buffaloes came down to the river in the night, but were a long way
off by daylight. They soon adopt this habit in places where they are
hunted.
The plains we travel over are constantly varying in breadth,
according as the furrowed and wooded hills approach or recede from
the river. On the southern side we see the hill Bungwe, and the
long, level, wooded ridge Nyangombe, the first of a series bending
from the S.E. to the N.W. past the Zambesi. We shot an old pallah on
the 16th, and found that the poor animal had been visited with more
than the usual share of animal afflictions. He was stone-blind in
both eyes, had several tumours, and a broken leg, which showed no
symptoms of ever having begun to heal. Wild animals sometimes suffer
a great deal from disease, and wearily drag on a miserable existence
before relieved of it by some ravenous beast. Once we drove off a
maneless lion and lioness from a dead buffalo, which had been in the
last stage of a decline. They had watched him staggering to the
river to quench his thirst, and sprang on him as he was crawling up
the bank. One had caught him by the throat, and the other by his
high projecting backbone, which was broken by the lion's powerful
fangs. The struggle, if any, must have been short. They had only
eaten the intestines when we frightened them off. It is curious that
this is the part that wild animals always begin with, and that it is
also the first choice of our men. Were it not a wise arrangement
that only the strongest males should continue the breed, one could
hardly help pitying the solitary buffalo expelled from the herd for
some physical blemish, or on account of the weakness of approaching
old age. Banished from female society, he naturally becomes morose
and savage; the necessary watchfulness against enemies is now never
shared by others; disgusted, he passes into a state of chronic war
with all who enjoy life, and the sooner after his expulsion that he
fills the lion's or the wild-dog's maw, the better for himself and
for the peace of the country.
We encamped on the 20th of June at a spot where Dr. Livingstone, on
his journey from the West to the East Coast, was formerly menaced by
a chief named Mpende.
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