DEVICES FOR KILLING GAME. 3(J3 



ing the paths by which the elephants come, and then use 

 a large spear with a handle nearly as thick as a man's 

 wrist, and four or five feet long. When the animal 

 comes beneath they throw the spear, and if it enters be- 

 tween the ribs above, as the blade is at least twenty inches 

 long by two broad, the motion of the handle, as it is aided 

 by knocking against the trees, makes frightful gashes 

 within and soon causes death. They kill them also by 

 means of a spear inserted in a beam of wood, which being 

 suspended on a branch of a tree by a cord attached to a 

 latch fastened in the path and intended to be struck by 

 the animal's foot, leads to the fall of the beam, and, the 

 spear being poisoned, causes death in a few hours. 



We were detained by continuous rains several days at 

 this island. The clouds rested upon the tops of the hills as 

 they came from the eastward, and then poured down plen- 

 teous showers on the valleys below. As soon as we could 

 move, Tomba Nyama, the head-man of the island, volun- 

 teered the loan of a canoe to cross a small river, called 

 the Chongwe, which we found to be about fifty or sixty 

 yards broad and flooded. All this part of the country was 

 well known to Sekwebu; and he informed us that, when 

 he passed through it as a boy, the inhabitants possessed 

 abundance of cattle and there were no tsetse. The exist- 

 ence of the insect now shows that it may return in com- 

 pany with the larger game. The vegetation along the 

 bank was exceedingly rank, and the bushes so tangled that 

 it was difficult to get on. The paths had been made by the 

 wild animals alone, for the general pathway of the people 

 is the river, in their canoes. We usually followed the foot- 

 paths of the game; and of these there was no lack. Buf- 

 faloes, zebras, palhths, and waterbucks abound; and there 

 is also a great abundance of wild pigs, koodoos, and the 

 black antelope. We got one buffalo as he was rolling him- 

 self in a pool of mud. He had a large piece of skin torn 

 out of his flank, it was believed, by an alligator. 



We were struck by the fact that, as soon as we came 



