BAINES' EXPERIENCE AT VK.'TUlUA EALLS. 135 



I had returned, when Chapman came galloping back for 

 life (not his own but his horse's). A fly had settled on 

 the rmnp of his steed, and though he had driven it off, he 

 could be by no means sure that others had not sucked 

 blood, and left the subtle venom with which they dilute 

 it. We altered our course, and held more north along 

 the rivulet in the open places, galloping the oxen when- 

 ever we were forced to enter the bush. A herd of water- 

 boks appeared ; Chapman wounded one and gave chase, 

 but again the fly attacked him and forced him to a pre- 

 cipitate retreat " (pp. 469—470). 



[Zimhoya B.] " I saw a dozen of the dreaded little 

 pests hovering with that rapid motion of the wing that 

 keeps the insect stationary over the devoted cattle [trek- 

 oxen] ; but near an hour passed before we were again 

 ready to move, and a few minutes of that time has most 

 likely served to inject the poison which dooms twelve 

 working oxen, two horses, and the cows, to a painful and 

 lingering death. No one can be assured of this, till in 

 three weeks or so the staring eye and roughened coat 

 begin to tell the tale of gradual waste. I heartily wish 

 (hope, I can hardly say) we may be mistaken, but our 

 guide, who had seen no fly, when asked whether he was 

 certain on the point, replied with an air of astonishment, 

 ' Is then the Tsetse a thing that a man forgets when he 

 has once seen it V '' (pp. 470-71). 



Tsetse at the Victoria Falls. — "Another hindrance is 

 the annoyance caused to the pcunter [of the Falls] by the 

 incessant persecutions of the Tsetse. At the moment, 

 perhaps, when one requires the utmost steadiness and 

 delicacy of hand, a dozen of these little pests take advan- 

 tage of his stillness, and simultaneously plunge their pre- 

 paratory lancets into the neck, wrists, and the tenderest 

 parts of the body ; one or more cunning fellows actually 

 selecting the jalaces where the lines of fortune radiate or 

 cross, with a skill in palmistry that would do honour to 

 an experienced gipsy" (p. 511). 



27. 1865. David and Charles Livingstone. 



" Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and 

 ITS Tributaries " (London : John Murray), pp. :i06-207, 

 232-233, 424. 



