262 THE KORWE AND HER NEST. 



by the elephant, and they may be seen standing picking them 

 off patiently by the hour. 



The bow and arrow have been ineffectual weapons against 

 the multitudes of animals which make their home in this coun- 

 try. Buffaloes and antelopes were found in abundance ; lions 

 and hyenas also are remarkably numerous. Possibly the super- 

 stition of the people has something to do with the numbers and 

 audacity 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 little huts 

 are seen made in the trees, indicating the places where some of 

 the inhabitants have slept when benighted in the fields. 



The courage or indifference with which Livingstone's men 

 wandered about in search of honey and birds' nests quite aston- 

 ished the natives. In these forays it was quite common for 

 them to find the nests of the korwe. This is a very remarkable 

 bird whose nests are found in the cavities of the mopane trees. 

 When the female enters her nest, she submits to a real confine- 

 ment. The male plasters up the entrance, leaving only a 

 narrow slit by which to feed his mate, and which exactly suits 

 the form of his beak. The female makes a nest of her own 

 feathers, lays her eggs, hatches them, and remains with the 

 young till they are fully fledged. During all this time, which 

 is stated to be two or three months, the male continues to feed 

 her and the young family. The prisoner generally becomes 

 quite fat, and is esteemed a very dainty morsel by the natives, 

 while the poor slave of a husband gets so lean that, on the sud- 

 den lowering of the temperature which sometimes happens after 

 a fall of rain, he is benumbed, falls down, and dies. The 

 korwe generally leads her young forth about the time when corn 

 is ripe, and they are fully clothed and fledged for their first 

 appearance on the stage of life. The devotion which the parent 

 birds manifest for each other is very beautiful ; but when a dis- 

 consolate husband is found feeding another wife at the same 

 nest from which his former partner was taken by voracious men 



