CHAPTER VI 



MAKANVANGA THE PHILOSOPHER 



IN 1903, whilst hunting between the Locheringo 

 and Msingie Rivers, in Portuguese Nyassaland, as 

 we had been absent some six weeks from camp a 

 much longer period than I had anticipated food 

 for my men and the stock of calico and beads 

 requisite to purchase provisions from the natives ran 

 out, and, owing to the impracticability of arranging a 

 rendezvous on account of my moving about from 

 place to place as the spoor of elephants took me, to 

 send for supplies to my camp in the Golambepc 

 Hills, some five days' journey distant, was out of the 

 question. Elephants, moreover, were plentiful, and 

 as they would probably have moved away from 

 the district ere I could return from a personal visit 

 to camp for provisions, I was at my wits' end to 

 discover a way out of the difficulty. At this 

 juncture, my head tracker, Makanyanga, came to 

 my assistance by experiencing what I can only 

 aptly term a 'brain wave.' I had just shot a 



65 TT 



