SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 83 
I threw my gun into my left hand to be in readiness, to the 
amusement of my followers, who, knowing I had never as yet 
fallen in with the baobab (Adansonia digitata), had led me a 
little aside to grin at my astonishment. ‘These quaint, enormous 
trees seem to have belonged, like many of the animals of Africa, 
to a bygone world, and, finding the present doesn’t suit them, 
they are taking their leave. A few of the old ones still remain, 
but I never saw a young one. The largest I measured was 
74 feet girth at four feet from the ground, and the smallest 
45 feet, but I perhaps overlooked smaller specimens. 
‘We had very good sport, unbroken by accident or anything 
remarkable. Our starvelings had fattened day by day, and 
were now shining and very merry and happy in their new skins. 
Uncivilised man does not take long to pick up ; he only wants 
_ food, and plenty of it. Shall I be believed if I say that Kafirs 
will eat, if you give it them, from 12 Ibs. to 15 lbs. of solid meat 
- inthe day? It appears, I know, an impossible feat, but I can 
_ youch for it and partly explain it, too; for in a short journey 
_ with Livingstone, between the Chobé and Zambesi rivers, two 
"or three years after this, we had no sort of meal with us, and 
: _ were consequently obliged to live on meat alone. And I cer- 
tainly thought the dear old Doctor was very greedy, for he 
would eat 4 Ibs. for his breakfast and the same or more for his 
_ dinner. On telling him my opinion of his performance, he 
_ fetaliated, ‘Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve been thinking just 
_ the same of you!’ The fact is that a very large quantity 
_ of meat is required if nothing else is eaten. When I got back 
_ to the waggons I tried giving two or three of the men a handful 
of beans with their rations, and found they could not possibly 
eat more than 3 lbs. of flesh, the smaller mixed diet meeting all 
the requirements of the system. 
_ We had harried the country of the Bakaas a good deal, 
id decided on seeking a new field along the banks of the 
Limpopo, where we heard the game—elephants especially —were 
in great abundance ; so, setting our heads about E. by S., we 
i i onwards, and, travelling slowly, came to it on the 
G2 
