90 CHASE BY A BUFFALO. Chap. IV. 



shot. The larger of the two, a female, was ten feet long. They 

 are harmless, and said to be good eating. The Makololo 

 having set fire to the grass where they were cutting wood, a 

 solitary buffalo rushed out of the conflagration, and made a 

 furious charge at an active young fellow named Mantlauyane. 

 Never did his fleet limbs serve him better than during the few 

 seconds of his fearful flight before the maddened animal. 

 When he reached the bank, and sprang into the river, the 

 infuriated beast was scarcely six feet behind him. Towards 

 evening, after the day's labour in wood-cutting was over, 

 some of the men went fishing. They followed the com- 

 mon African custom of agitating the water, by giving it 

 a few sharp strokes with the top of the fishing-rod, imme- 

 diately after throwing in the line, to attract the attention 

 of the fish to the bait. Having caught nothing, the 

 reason assigned was the same as would have been given in 

 England under like circumstances, namely, that " the wind 

 made the fish cold, and they would not bite." Many gardens 

 of maize, pumpkins, and tobacco, fringed the marshy banks 

 as we went on. They belong to natives of the lulls, who come 

 down in the dry season, and raise a crop on parts at other 

 times flooded. While the crops are growing, large quantities 

 of fish are caught, chiefly Clarias capensis, and Mugil Afri- 

 canus ; they are dried for sale or for future consumption. 



As we ascended, we passed a deep stream about thirty yards 

 wide, flowing in from a body of open water several miles 

 broad. Numbers of men were busy at different parts of it, 

 filling their canoes with the lotus root, called Nyika, which, 

 when boiled or roasted, resembles our chestnuts, and is 

 extensively used in Africa as food. Out of this lagoon, and by 

 this stream, the chief part of the duckweed of the Shire flows. 

 The lagoon itself is called Nyanja ea Motope (Lake of Mud). 



