26 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



many voices and the dull, insistent undertone 

 of the drums. 



Primitive and crude, indeed, was the night's ex- 

 hibition, but true in its pagan representation 

 of passion and lust. Brute passion is typified in 

 savage man, and perhaps in civilized man as well ; 

 it is an inheritance which has been brought down 

 through all the ages; to create and to kill are 

 desires which have survived all the influences of 

 progress. 



Many of the dances which have roused the 

 theatres of Europe to unparalleled heights of 

 enthusiasm are merely the dance of the Walonga 

 without the camp-fire or the assegais or the naked 

 figures. Instead there are the stage-lights and 

 decapitation and butterfly wings. But if you 

 could have seen the abandon of Luvembe's 

 people that night and heard the haunting beat 

 of the drums and the weird choir of the village, 

 you, too, would have thought that this night dance 

 was far more fantastic, far more striking, far 

 more likely to remain in memory that any execu- 

 tion that has drawn forth raptures from the crowd. 

 It was, in fact, a passion play staged in every 

 detail in accordance with its primitive savagery, 

 and acted in keeping with the reality of its stage. 



As day came stealing over bush and plain and 

 hillock, I was marshalling my carriers together 

 preparatory to a long day's tramp after buffalo. 

 These magnificent great beasts — " God's cattle," 

 as the Matabele used to call them — roam in great 

 numbers on the Congo-Zambesi watershed. One 

 large herd had been wandering around between 

 the Mwomboshi and M'Lungushi rivers for three 

 or four years, and after a day's search my 

 hunter boys picked up the spoor of these animals. 

 Hours and hours of tramping brought us up 



