Chap. XXIX. GAME-LAWS. 599 



mile to the opposite end of the island, and swam to the main- 

 land with then probosees above the water, and, no canoe being 

 near, they escaped. They swim strongly, with the proboscis 

 erect in the air. I was not very desirous to have one of these 

 animals killed, for we understood that when we passed Mpende, 

 we came into a country where the garae-laws are strictly en- 

 forced. The lands of each chief are very well defined, the 

 boundaries being usually marked by rivulets, great numbers of 

 which flow into the Zambesi from both banks, and, if an elephant 

 is wounded on one man's land and dies on that of another, the 

 under half of the carcase is claimed by the lord of the soil ; and so 

 stringent is the law, that the hunter cannot begin at once to cut 

 up his own elephant ; but must send notice to the lord of the soil 

 on which it lies, and wait until that personage sends one autho- 

 rized to see a fair partition made. If the hunter should begin to 

 cut up before the agent of the landowner arrives, he is liable to 

 lose both the tusks and all the flesh. The hind leg of a buffalo 

 must also be given to the man on whose land the animal was 

 grazing, and a still larger quantity of the eland, which here and 

 everywhere else hi the country is esteemed right royal food. In 

 the country above Zumbo we did not find a vestige of tins law ; and 

 but for the fact that it existed in the country of the Bamapela, 

 far to the south of this, I should have been disposed to regard it 

 in the same light as I do the payment for leave to pass — an im- 

 position levied on him who is seen to be weak because in the 

 hands of his slaves. The only game-laws in the interior are, that 

 the man who first wounds an animal, though he has inflicted but 

 a mere scratch, is considered the killer of it, the second is entitled 

 to a hind-quarter, and the third to a fore-leg. The chiefs are 

 generally entitled to a share as tribute ; in some parts it is the 

 breast, in others the whole of the ribs and one fore-leg. I gene- 

 rally respected this law, although exceptions are sometimes made 

 when animals are lolled by guns. The knowledge that he who 

 succeeds in reaching the wounded beast first, is entitled to a share, 

 stimulates the whole party to greater exertions in despatching 

 it. One of my men, having a knowledge of elephant medicine, 

 was considered the leader in the hunt ; he went before the others, 

 examined the animals, and on his decision all depended. If he 

 decided to attack a herd, the rest went boldly on; but if he 



