Chap. I. HUNTING EXPEDITION. 39 



to where the wounded beast hides below until they des- 

 patch it. 



These hippopotamus hunters form a separate people, called 

 Akoinbwi, or Mapodzo, and rarely — the women it is said never 

 — intermarry with any other tribe. The reason for their keep- 

 ing aloof from certain of the natives on the Zambesi is obvious 

 enough, some having as great an abhorrence of hippopotamus 

 meat as Mahomedans have of swine's flesh. Our pilot, Scissors, 

 was one of this class ; he would not even cook his food in a pot 

 which had contained hippopotamus meat, preferring to go 

 hungry till he could find another ; and yet he traded eagerly 

 in the animal's tusks, and ate with great relish the flesh of 

 the foul-feeding marabout. These hunters go out frequently 

 on long expeditions, taking in their canoes their wives and 

 children, cooking-pots, and sleeping-mats. . When they reach 

 a good game district, they erect temporary huts on the bank, 

 and there dry the meat they have killed. They are rather a 

 comely-looking race, with very black smooth skins, and never 

 disfigure themselves with the frightful ornaments of some of 

 the other tribes. The chief declined to sell a harpoon, because 

 they could not now get the milola bark from the coast on 

 account of Mariano's war. He expressed some doubts about 

 our being children of the same Almighty Father, remarking 

 that " they could not become white, let them wash ever so 

 much." We made him a present of a bit of cloth, and he 

 very generously gave us in return some fine fresh fish and 

 Indian corn. 



The heat of the weather steadily increases during this month 

 (August), and foggy mornings are now rare. A strong breeze 

 ending in a gale blows up stream every night. It came in the 

 afternoon a few weeks ago, then later, and at present its ar- 

 rival is near midnight ; it makes our frail cabin-doors fly open 



