658 SLOW TRAVELING. 



period of its discovery. The reports brought by my other party 

 from Loanda of the value of wax had induced some of my present 

 companions to bring small quantities of it to Tete, but, not know- 

 ing the proper mode of preparing it, it was so dark colored that 

 no one would purchase it ; I afterward saw a little at Kilimane 

 which had been procured from the natives somewhere in this re- 

 gion. 



Though we are now approaching the Portuguese settlement, 

 the country is still full of large game. My men killed six buffalo 

 calves out of a herd we met. The abundance of these animals, 

 and also of antelopes, shows the insufficiency of the bow and arrow 

 to lessen their numbers. There are also a great many lions and 

 hysenas, 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 consequence is, that lions and hyaenas 

 are so abundant that we see little huts made in the trees, indicat- 

 ing the places where some of the inhabitants have slept when be- 

 nighted in the fields. As numbers of my men frequently left the 

 line of march 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 considerably ahead of 

 the main body of my men on this account, and was obliged to 

 stop every hour or two ; but, the sun being excessively hot by 

 day, I was glad of the excuse for resting. We could make no 

 such prodigious strides as officers in the Arctic regions are able to 

 do. Ten or twelve miles a day were a good march for both the 

 men and myself; and it was not the length of the marches, but 

 continuing day after day to perform the same distance, that was 

 so fatiguing. It was in this case much longer than appears on the 

 map, because we kept out of the way of villages. I drank less 

 than the natives when riding, but all my clothing was now con- 

 stantly damp from the moisture which was imbibed in large quan- 

 tities at every pond. One does not stay on these occasions to 

 prepare water with alum or any thing else, but drinks any amount 



