MODE OF ERECTING A BOTHY. 35 



a second party gathered green brush-wood ; and the 

 third collected a large quantity of long dry grass, which 

 they tore out of the ground by the roots. The poles 

 were set up in a circular position, the forked ends meet- 

 ing and resting against one another overhead, then the 

 brush-wood was tightly intt laced between the poles, 

 leaving a small low aperture for the door, and the fab- 

 ric was effectually thatched with the long grass, the 

 conical summit being usually crowned either WMth the 

 enormous ear or a portion of the hide of an elephant. 

 Such was the bothy which the natives were wont to 

 build for me when overtaken by storms, or when the 

 sky looked threatening, during the remainder of that 

 and all the subsequent seasons that I hunted among 

 the Bechuaqa tribes. But it often happened, when 1 

 had lain down for the night with no other roof above 

 me than the vaulted canopy of heaven, that my placid 

 slumbers were rudely disturbed by rain falling like a 

 water-spout on my face. Such events as these were 

 extremely disagreeable, more especially w^hen it came 

 down so heavily as to preclude the possibility of main- 

 taining our usual watch-fires. In weather like this tho 

 prowling tyrant (ff the forest is ever most active in his 

 search for prey, and our ears were occasionally greeted 

 with the deep-toned voices of troops of lions, as, attract- 

 ed by the smell of our beef, they prowled around our 

 encampments. 



I continued hunting to the eastward of Bamangwato 

 until the 8d of October, during which time I added four 

 other noble elephants, besides rhinoceroses and other 

 animals, to my already satisfactory list of game* 



* It 13 about this latitude that the traveler will first meet witli tha 

 gigantic and castle-like nwana, which is decidedly the most striking and 

 wonderful tree among the thousaudi which adoi-n the South Afncan 



