DIFFICULTY IN USING THE GUN. 147 



Great expectations had been formed when I arrived among 

 the Makololo on this subject; but, having invariably de- 

 clined to deceive them, as some for their own profit have 

 done, my men now supposed that I would at last consent, 

 and thereby relieve myself from the hard work of hunting 

 by employing them after due medication. This I was most 

 willing to do, if I could have done it honestly; for, having 

 but little of the hunting-/wrore in my composition, I always 

 preferred eating the game to killing it. Sulphur is the 

 remedy most admired, and I remember Sechele giving a 

 large price for a very small bit. He also gave some 

 elephants' tusks, worth £30, for another medicine which 

 was to make him invulnerable to musket-balls. As I 

 uniformly recommended that these things should be tested 

 by experiment, a calf was anointed with the charm and 

 tied to a tree. It proved decisive, and Sechele remarked 

 it was "pleasanter to be deceived than undeceived." I 

 offered sulphur for the same purpose, but that was declined, 

 even though a person came to the town afterward and 

 rubbed his hands with a little before a successful trial of 

 shooting at a mark. 



I explained to my men the nature of a gun, and tried to 

 teach them, but they would soon have expended all the 

 ammunition in my possession. I was thus obliged to do 

 all the shooting myself ever afterward. Their inability 

 was rather a misfortune ; for, in consequence of working 

 too soon after having been bitten by the lion, the bone of 

 mj* left arm had not united well. Continual hard manual 

 labor, and some falls from ox-back, lengthened the liga- 

 ment by which the ends of the bones were united, and a 

 false joint was the consequence. The limb has never been 

 painful, as those of my companions on the day of the ren- 

 counter with the lion have been; but, there being a joint 

 too many, I could not steady the rifle, and was always 

 obliged to shoot with the piece resting on the left shoulder. 

 I wanted steadiness of aim, and it generally happened that 



