44 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



afterwards he told me that the wounds often gave 

 him great pain, especially in damp weather. 

 Remembering Dr. Livingstone's statement that when 

 he was bitten by a lion he felt no sensation of pain, 

 I asked Jacobs whether this was his case ; but he 

 emphatically denied it, saying that each scrunch 

 gave him the most acute anguish. I believe, however, 

 that most people who have been bitten by a lion or a 

 tiger, agree with Dr. Livingstone, and imagine that 

 the shock to the nervous system caused by the bite 

 of one of these powerful animals is usually sufficient 

 to deaden all sensation of pain for the time being. 



From Sebakwe drift it is about forty miles due 

 south to the Mashuna kraals, situated among the 

 curious rocky hills I have before mentioned, and 

 near the sources ot the river Bembees. Their huts 

 were often perched high up on the crags in the most 

 precarious situations, their corn-bins being often 

 built on round blocks of stone at the very summit 

 of the hill. The Mashunas live in small towns 

 under many petty chiefs, and as, when attacked by 

 the Matabele, they never combine and help one 

 another, but allow themselves to be overcome piece- 

 meal, they fall an easy prey to these fierce marauders, 

 who have now depopulated an immense extent of 

 country. The Mashunas are a peaceful and very 

 industrious people, growing large quantities of 

 different kinds of grain, including most excellent 

 rice, and are good workers in • iron, making very 

 good assegais, battle-axes, etc. They also have a 

 musical instrument very similar to the " Marimba " 

 of the natives of Angola, made of about twenty 

 pieces of flat iron fastened in a row on a small board, 

 which, being of varying lengths, produce different 

 notes. 



