Chap. XXX. SLOW TRAVELLING. 615 



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

 from Loauda of the value of wax, had induced some of my 

 present companions to bring small quantities of it to Tete, but, 

 not knowing the proper mode of preparing it, it was so dark 

 coloured that no one would purchase it ; I afterwards saw a 

 little at Kilimane, winch had been procured from the natives 

 somewhere in this region. 



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 hyaenas, 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 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 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 dis- 

 tance, 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 constantly damp from the moisture which was imbibed 

 in large quantities at every pond. One does not stay on these 

 occasions to prepare water with alum or anything else, but 



