CHAPTER XI 



SOUTH AGAIN CATENGUE TO LUBANGO, AND 

 A BUFFALO STORY 



OUR small party of nine people (two house- 

 boys and six porters) left Catengue 

 before daybreak on the morning of the 

 llth October. 



The road lay first south-east for 100 miles to 

 Quillenges, and then a similar distance south-west 

 to Lubango, along the lower slopes of the Angolan 

 plateau. These uplands, some 2000 feet high, 

 rose eastward to highlands of twice this height, 

 and dropped westward by terraces through an 

 increasingly arid country to a desert plain and 

 then the sea, 100 miles away. The country was 

 covered with grass, light bush, and open forests 

 of small trees, except along the rivers with their 

 fringes of denser growth. 



The Angolan winter was coming to an end. In 

 the uplands and interior the rains had already 

 commenced, but here the country still looked 

 parched and dry, for the rainfall is smaller than 

 in the north, and often capricious ; but clouds 

 were gathering, and the air was oppressive with 

 hints of approaching storms. The early morn- 

 ings were still cold, but in the day the heat and 



