136 THROUGH ANGOLA 



was employed by the natives to poison each 

 other, and sometimes Europeans. 



When on the way down to Lobito Bay from 

 Chinguar, the railway carriage was besieged by 

 people waiting to see Jimmy perform his fly- 

 catching tricks, and there were many " ohs ' : 

 and " ahs " from both natives and Portuguese, 

 when James would whip out his 8-inch tongue 

 and pouch a fly at this distance from him. 



Although Jim was not unhappy, and cer- 

 lainly well fed and looked after, yet he had a 

 constant desire to escape, and became thoroughly 

 artful in these attempts. He used to watch me, 

 and if he thought me asleep would creep out 

 of his box, or try to slip his little arms out of the 

 harness of soft grey wool which confined him. 

 Even if one had wished to, it would have been 

 unkind to give Jim his liberty once we had moved 

 from the Coanza River, as the whole character 

 of the vegetation in the coastal region and south 

 of Angola, where Jim had now arrived, was 

 different from that in the north, and it is doubtful 

 if he could have looked after himself, or survived 

 long in this strange country. 



Although Jimmy may have had weary mo- 

 ments in captivity, he must have been happier 

 than the chameleon of the Dutch naturalist, 

 Bruin, who describes the animal as living on air, 

 though he admitted the chameleon appeared more 

 animated on the rare occasions when he was freed 

 from his box, and was seen actually to eat flies ; 

 or from the chameleon of Bosnian, the eighteenth- 

 century traveller, who, while agreeing with Bruin 



