894 SLOW TRAVELLING. 



laden with, large blocks of this substance, each eighty or 

 a hundred pounds in weight, and pieces were offered to 

 us for sale at every village ; but here we never saw a single 

 artificial hive. The bees were always found in the natural 

 cavities of mopane-trees. It is probable that the good 

 market for wax afforded to Angola by the churches of 

 Brazil led to the gradual development of that branch of 

 commerce there. I saw even on the banks of the Quango as 

 much as sixpence paid for a pound. In many parts of the 

 Batoka country bees exist in vast numbers, and the tribute 

 due to Sekeletu is often paid in large jars of honey; but, 

 having no market nor use for the wax, it is thrown away. 

 This was the case also with ivory at the Lake Ngami at 

 the period of its discovery. 



Though we are now approaching the Portuguese settle 

 nient, the country is still full of large game. My men 

 killed six buffalo-calves out of a herd we met. The abun- 

 dance of these animals, and also of antelopes, shows the in- 

 sufficiency of the bow and arrow to lessen their, numbers. 

 There are also a great many lions and hyenas, and there is 

 no check upon the increase of the former, for the people, 

 believing that the souls of their chiefs enter into them, 

 never attempt to kill them : they even believe that a chief 

 may metamorphose himself into a lion, kill any one he 

 chooses, and then return to the human form : therefore, 

 when they see one, they commence clapping their hands, 

 which is the usual mode of salutation here. The conse- 

 quence is that lions and hyenas are so abundant that we 

 see little huts made in the trees, indicating the places where 

 some of the inhabitants have slept when benighted in the 

 fields. As numbers of my men frequently left the line of 

 inarch in order to take out the korwes from their nests 

 or follow the honey-guides, they excited the astonishment 

 of our guides, who were constantly warning them of the 

 danger they thereby incurred from lions. I was often con- 

 siderably ahead of the main body of my men on this ac- 

 count, and was obliged to stop every hour or two ; but, the 



