568 A LEOPAKD HUNT. 



wild beasts. This deliverance was more notable because the 

 floods having forced these monsters from their jungles, they 

 were more numerous and ravenous than usual on the hisrber 

 land. Many villages had been broken up by them. There 

 were a great many leopards infesting some of the districts which 

 he had crossed. These cruel blood-thirsty animals lurk about 

 the paths, hidden by the tall waving grass, and spring on un- 

 suspecting men, and many a victim never returns to tell the story 

 of his encounter. Farther south, in Caffre Land, leopard hunt- 

 ing ranks high in the list of wild and perilous delights. A 

 body of men take a position near some opening in the forest, 

 where the undergrowth is small or scarce ; others with packs of 

 dogs begin the hunt at a distance, and approach through the 

 forest, very much after our western plan of driving for deer. 

 The tremendous baying of dogs and yelling of men is the first 

 intimation the waiting horsemen have that a leopard has been 

 found ; riders and horses are equally impatient as the baying and 

 yelling draw nearer and nearer. And when the bounding object 

 of their quest enters the glade, away they fly in swift pursuit ; the 

 dismayed animal finding new foes, strains every muscle, his 

 splendid robe glistening in the sunshine, and his eyes flashing 

 like fire, while the well-trained steeds, rejoicing in the chase, bear 

 their shouting riders in advance of the baying pack. And it is 

 an odd chance the leopard has of life, if a practised Caffre lifts 

 his spear. But there is not much time for review in a busy 

 life, and Dr. Livingstone had already lost so much time that 

 he was more eager than ever to press forward with his work. 



Casembe received him very graciously, very much to the 

 chagrin of a certain cropped-eared babbler, who had exerted all 

 his abilities, with the persistency of an attorney, to make a 

 "case" out of the " English coming a second time." 



The chief received his plans for visiting Lake Bemba very 

 kindly, and offered no objections; but he could not understand 

 any more than his subjects why on earth the Englishman 

 should go so far only to see water, when there was enough so 

 much nearer. But as far as he was able, he seemed willing to 

 further the desires of his visitor. With all his cruelty he had 

 a vein of manly generosity in him, and improved greatly on ac- 

 quaintance. True, he could not rise above the superstition 



