When It Is A Couple Of Miles Off
It Is Rather Fatiguing To Have To Go Twice; More Especially On The
Days When It Is Solely To Supply Their Wants That, Instead Of Resting
Ourselves, We Go At All.
Like those who perform benevolent deeds at
home, the tired hunter, though trying hard to live in charity with
all men, is strongly tempted to give it up by bringing only
sufficient meat for the three whites and leaving the rest; thus
sending the "idle ungrateful poor" supperless to bed.
And yet it is
only by continuance in well-doing, even to the length of what the
worldly-wise call weakness, that the conviction is produced anywhere,
that our motives are high enough to secure sincere respect.
A jungle of mimosa, ebony, and "wait-a-bit" thorn lies between the
Chicova flats and the cultivated plain, on which stand the villages
of the chief, Chitora. He brought us a present of food and drink,
because, as he, with the innate politeness of an African, said, he
"did not wish us to sleep hungry: he had heard of the Doctor when he
passed down, and had a great desire to see and converse with him; but
he was a child then, and could not speak in the presence of great
men. He was glad that he had seen the English now, and was sorry
that his people were away, or he should have made them cook for us."
All his subsequent conduct showed him to be sincere.
Many of the African women are particular about the water they use for
drinking and cooking, and prefer that which is filtered through sand.
To secure this, they scrape holes in the sandbanks beside the stream,
and scoop up the water, which slowly filters through, rather than
take it from the equally clear and limpid river. This practice is
common in the Zambesi, the Rovuma, and Lake Nyassa; and some of the
Portuguese at Tette have adopted the native custom, and send canoes
to a low island in the middle of the river for water. Chitora's
people also obtained their supply from shallow wells in the sandy bed
of a small rivulet close to the village. The habit may have arisen
from observing the unhealthiness of the main stream at certain
seasons. During nearly nine months in the year, ordure is deposited
around countless villages along the thousands of miles drained by the
Zambesi. When the heavy rains come down, and sweep the vast fetid
accumulation into the torrents, the water is polluted with filth;
and, but for the precaution mentioned, the natives would prove
themselves as little fastidious as those in London who drink the
abomination poured into the Thames by Reading and Oxford. It is no
wonder that sailors suffered so much from fever after drinking
African river water, before the present admirable system of
condensing it was adopted in our navy.
The scent of man is excessively terrible to game of all kinds, much
more so, probably, than the sight of him.
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