320 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



for a few miles, when a heavy rain came on once 

 more, which soon drenched us to the skin. Soon 

 after we reached a small Banyai kraal, deserted by 

 its owners, but still in very good condition, and (the 

 weather still looking very unpropitious) did our best 

 to make ourselves comfortable for the night. The 

 temperature seemed deliciously cool up here in the 

 hills, after the hot stifling atmosphere of the Zambesi 

 valley. 



December i8//;. — Day broke very wet and rainy, 

 so we remained where we were. In the afternoon it 

 cleared up, so I went out and shot a wild pig. A 

 Banyai here joined us from Cambari's kraal — a spare- 

 built, wiry little fellow, with his hair arranged in 

 long tassels or strings, which hung down on all sides, 

 over his eyes, and behind down to his shoulders. 

 He was about the wildest-looking individual I had 

 yet seen, wilder-looking than even the Bushmen of 

 the Mababe — the bean-ideal of a savage, untamed 

 man. 



December \()th. — Turned out a beautiful day, cool 

 and cloudy after the rain. The path took us in 

 a north-westerly direction, continually ascending 

 towards the table-land of Manica. Just at present 

 the country about here looked charming ; the young 

 grass — thanks to the heavy rains that had been falling 

 during the last fortnight — had shot up to a foot or 

 eighteen inches in height over hill and dale, every tree 

 and shrub was in full leaf, and everything looked green 

 and fresh and smiling. A large proportion of the 

 trees and shrubs in these hills bear sweet-smelling 

 and handsome flowers, and I noticed more small wild- 

 flowers than I had seen in any other part of the 

 country that 1 had yet visited. About two o'clock 

 we emerged from the hills, and stepped on to the 



