Leopards,
less common, are the terror of the villagers. Foxes are not
numerous, but frighten the black traveller by their ill-omened
bark. Hares, about half the size of English ones - there are no
rabbits - are widely spread, but not numerous; porcupines the
same. Wild cats, and animals of the ferret kind, destroy game.
Monkeys of various kinds and squirrels harbour in the trees, but
are rarely seen. Tortoises and snakes, in great variety, crawl
over the ground, mostly after the rains. Rats and lizards - there
are but few mice - are very abundant, and feed both in the fields
and on the stores of the men.
The wily ostrich, bustard, and florikan affect all open places.
The guinea-fowl is the most numerous of all game-birds.
Partridges come next, but do not afford good sport; and quails
are rare. Ducks and snipe appear to love Africa less than any
other country; and geese and storks are only found where water
most abounds. Vultures are uncommon; hawks and crows much
abound, as in all other countries; but little birds, of every
colour and note, are discoverable in great quantities near water
and by the villages. Huge snails and small ones, as well as
fresh-water shells, are very abundant, though the conchologist
would find but little variety to repay his labours; and insects,
though innumerable, are best sought for after the rains have set
in.[FN#3]
The Wanguana or Freed Men
The Wa-n-guana, as their name implies, are men freed from
slavery; and as it is to these singular negroes acting as hired
servants that I have been chiefly indebted for opening this large
section of Africa, a few general remarks on their character
cannot be out of place here.
Of course, having been born in Africa, and associated in
childhood with the untainted negroes, they retain all the
superstitious notions of the true aborigines, though somewhat
modified, and even corrupted, by that acquaintance with the outer
world which sharpens their wits.
Most of these men were doubtless caught in wars, as may be seen
every day in Africa, made slaves of, and sold to the Arabs for a
few yards of common cloth, brass wire, or beads. They would then
be taken to the Zanzibar market, resold like horses to the
highest bidder, and then kept in bondage by their new masters,
more like children of his family than anything else. In this new
position they were circumcised to make Mussulmans of them, that
their hands might be "clean" to slaughter their master's cattle,
and extend his creed; for the Arabs believe the day must come
when the tenets of Mohammed will be accepted by all men.
The slave in this new position finds himself much better off than
he ever was in his life before, with this exception, that as a
slave he feels himself much degraded in the social scale of
society, and his family ties are all cut off from him - probably
his relations have all been killed in the war in which he was
captured.
