46 ACCIDENT TO BUCIOliEY. 



Buckley, his head hangmg down. I found him quite 

 insensible, but seeing no blood, I proceeded to ex- 

 amine him, when I was informed that he had fallen 

 into a covered elephant pit, and that as he fell his 

 rifle had gone off. With the use of cold water, &c., I 

 succeeded in bringing him to, and was glad to find 

 that though he had been stunned by the fall, he was 

 more frightened than hurt. I had passed the pitfall 

 only a few minutes before, but I saw it at once, and 

 avoided it. The hole, being now uncovered, turned 

 out to be about twelve feet deep, and twenty feet by 

 eight wide, water being lodged in the bottom. These 

 pitfalls are often found near the villages of the Mangan- 

 ja, who always trap their game ; while the Ajawahs 

 kill them with guns or arrows. The natives would 

 not be persuaded that Buckley was not dead, and when 

 at last he became sensible, they firmly believed I had 

 brought him to life again. One man asked me if I 

 could make a black man who was killed in a pitfall 

 " open his eyes again !" 



As Buckley complained of having hurt his back, I 

 ordered a halt by the river, and had some lunch un- 

 der a large palm-tree. On the opposite side of the 

 river was a neat little Manganja village, none of the 

 inhabitants of which, however, were Visible, the na- 

 tives who lived there being so frightened at our ap- 

 pearance, that they had left their huts, and concealed 

 themselves in the long grass, though the river lay be- 

 tween us, and we had no possibility of crossing. 

 However^ seeing we were only bent on refreshing 

 ourselves, and that our only and constant demand was 

 " cookoo maronda " (fowls to sell), one solitary indi- 



