332 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



when talking to him, lie down on their sides and rub 

 one shoulder in the dust at the conclusion of every 

 sentence. He asked us what we had come to the 

 country for, and when we told him we had come to 

 hunt elephants and asked his permission to do so, 

 he replied that we might hunt, but that one tusk of 

 every elephant shot belonged to him as king of the 

 country, and that we might keep the other ; he then 

 added that if we would give him a small present 

 we could keep both tusks. This looked as if he 

 either had a very poor idea of our hunting powers, 

 or that there were very few elephants in the country ; 

 1 think the latter was the true reason, and that it is 

 all a myth about Manica being a good elephant 

 country, as we had never seen so much as an old 

 spoor, and we heard, too, that Da Costa did not 

 buy a single tusk from Sitanda, who probably had 

 not any for sale. However, we resolved that if there 

 were no elephants here, we would cross the Kafukwe, 

 and have a look for them in the Mashukulumbwe 

 country. In the evening Owen complained of feel- 

 ing ill. 



January "jth. — Went down to Sitanda's cattle post, 

 about four miles to the east. On the way I saw 

 some konze antelopes and zebras, and wounded one 

 of the latter, but, after following a long way on 

 the blood spoor, I lost it. At the cattle post there 

 were about fifty head of cows and oxen, and twenty 

 small calves ; these cattle were the smallest breed I 

 had ever seen. I measured one of the largest cows 

 (though they were all much of a size) ; she stood 

 just 3 ft. 4 in. at the wither. Though so small, 

 these little cows are capital milkers ; they all had 

 very small horns, and were really beautiful little 

 animals. Went on from the cattle post to the 



