Elephants had been feeding
on the palm nuts, which have a pleasant fruity taste, and are used as
food by man.
Two pythons were observed coiled together among the
branches of a large tree, and were both shot. The larger of the two,
a female, was ten feet long. They are harmless, and said to be good
eating. The Makololo having set fire to the grass where they were
cutting wood, a solitary buffalo rushed out of the conflagration, and
made a furious charge at an active young fellow named Mantlanyane.
Never did his fleet limbs serve him better than during the few
seconds of his fearful flight before the maddened animal. When he
reached the bank, and sprang into the river, the infuriated beast was
scarcely six feet behind him. Towards evening, after the day's
labour in wood-cutting was over, some of the men went fishing. They
followed the common African custom of agitating the water, by giving
it a few sharp strokes with the top of the fishing-rod, immediately
after throwing in the line, to attract the attention of the fish to
the bait. Having caught nothing, the reason assigned was the same as
would have been given in England under like circumstances, namely,
that "the wind made the fish cold, and they would not bite." Many
gardens of maize, pumpkins, and tobacco, fringed the marshy banks as
we went on. They belong to natives of the hills, who come down in
the dry season, and raise a crop on parts at other times flooded.
While the crops are growing, large quantities of fish are caught,
chiefly Clarias capensis, and Mugil Africanus; they are dried for
sale or future consumption.
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