Chap. XXVm. HILLS AND VILLAGES. 569 



themselves and their gardens from their enemies ; there is 

 plenty of garden-ground outside the hills ; here they are obliged 

 to make pitfalls, to protect the grain against the hippopotami. 

 As these animals had not been disturbed by guns, they were 

 remarkably tame, and took no notice of our passing. We again 

 saw numbers of young ones, not much larger than terrier dogs, 

 sitting on the necks of their dams, the little saucy-looking heads 

 cocking up between the old one's ears ; as they become a 

 little older, they sit on the withers. Needing meat, we shot a 

 full-grown cow, and found, as we had often done before, the flesh 

 to be very much like pork. The height of this animal was 4 feet 

 10 inches, and from the point of the nose to the root of the tail 

 10 feet 6. They seem quarrelsome, for both males and females 

 are found covered with scars, and young males are often killed by 

 the elder ones : we met an instance of this near the falls. 



We came to a great many little villages among the hills, as if 

 the inhabitants had reason to hide themselves from the observa- 

 tion of their enemies. WTiile detained cutting up the hippo- 

 potamus, I ascended a hill called Mabue asula (stones smell badly), 

 and though not the highest in sight, it was certainly not 100 feet 

 lower than the most elevated. The boiling point of water showed 

 it to be about 900 feet above the river, which was of the 

 level of Linyanti. These hills seemed to my men of prodigious 

 altitude, for they had been accustomed to ant-hills only. The 

 mention of mountains that pierced the clouds, made them draw in 

 their breath and hold their hands to their mouths. And when I 

 told them that their previous description of Taba cheu had led 

 me to expect something of the sort, I found that the idea of a 

 cloud-capped mountain had never entered into their heads. The 

 mountains certainly look high, from having abrupt sides. But 

 I had recognised the fact by the point of ebullition of water, 

 that they are of a considerably lower altitude than the top of the 

 ridge we had left. They constitute in fact a sort of low fringe on 

 the outside of the eastern ridge, exactly as the (apparently) high 

 mountains of Angola (Golungo Alto) form an outer low fringe to 

 the western ridge. I was much struck by the similarity of con- 

 formation and nature of the rocks on both sides of the continent. 

 But there is a difference in the structure of the subtending 

 ridges, as may be understood by the annexed ideal geological 

 section. 



