8o MATABELE LAND. 
epithet). The man's father came to Nelson and 
asked to be paid, and was quite satisfied with a few 
coils of brass wire. Once, when Nelson killed a 
rhinoceros, a number of Mashona came for the 
meat and began fighting. They would cry, ' This 
is mine,' ' This is mine,' and two were killed. Nel- 
son went away, feeling, he says, quite frightened at 
the scene. An assegai was thrust into one man's 
heart by another who was quarrelling with him before 
Nelson's eyes. 
" In Damaraland, he says, the Bushmen are 
much better to get on with than the Matabele are 
here. They work for you like slaves for a little 
meat. They are under independent petty chiefs, 
and bring magnificent ostrich feathers for a small 
strip of limbo or other very trifling payment. From 
what Nelson says, it must be a capital place for the 
hunter, ivory being large, white, and plentiful, and 
easily got, and the natives most willing to assist. 
''October lyth. — Sleepless night; dogs barking 
at hyaenas. I was kept to the waggon yesterday 
with a sore heel, and to-day did not go far. Nelson 
came to the waggon in the afternoon. He tells me 
that, on the opposite side of the road, about ten 
miles away, is a 'fountain,'^ with one or two waters 
intervening, and plenty of game. He does not 
know whether the king allows any one to go into 
this veldt ; but it is a good country for a waggon to 
travel in. ... I went out with him a little in the 
evening. He says he has seen two elephants' tusks 
^ Spring. 
