LIONS — ARABS. 125 



as loudly as be could, putting, as is usual in sucli cases, his 

 mouth near the ground, to make the sound reverberate 

 The river was too broad for a ball to reach him, so we let 

 him enjoy himself, certain that he durst not have been 

 guilty of the impertinence in the Bushman country. 

 Wherever the game abounds, these animals exist in pro- 

 portionate numbers. Here they were very frequently seen, 

 and two of the largest I ever saw seemed about as tall as 

 common donkeys; but the mane made their bodies appear 

 rather larger. 



A party of Arabs from Zanzibar were in the country at 

 this time. Sekeletu had gone from Naliele to the town of 

 his mother before we arrived from the north, but left an ox 

 for our use, and instructions for us to follow him thither. 

 We came down a branch of the Leeambye called Marile, 

 which departs from the main river in latitude 15° 15'43"S., 

 and is a fine deep stream about sixty yards wide. It makes 

 the whole of the country around Naliele an island. When 

 sleeping at a village in the same latitude as Naliele town, 

 two of the Arabs mentioned made their appearance. They 

 were quite as dark as the Makololo, but, having their heads 

 shaved, I could not compare their hair with that of the 

 inhabitants of the country. When we were about to leave, 

 they came to bid adieu ; but I asked them to stay and 

 help us to eat our ox. As they had scruples about eating 

 an animal not blooded in their own way, I gained their 

 good-will by saying I was quite of their opinion as to 

 getting quit of the blood, and gave them two legs of an 

 animal slaughtered by themselves. They professed the 

 greatest detestation of the Portuguese, " because they eat 

 pigs;" and disliked the English, " because they thrash them 

 for selling slaves." I was silent about pork ; though, had 

 they seen me at a hippopotamus two days afterward, they 

 would have set me down as being as much a heretic as any 

 of that nation; but I ventured to tell them that I agreed 

 with the English, that it was better to let the children 



grow up and comfort their mothers when they became old, 



11* 



