■Chap. VII. REASONING WITH A LION. 161 



self a Chief, do you ? What kind of Chief are you to come 

 sneaking about in the dark, trying to steal our buffalo 

 meat! Are you not ashamed of yourself? A pretty Chief 

 truly ; you are like the scavenger beetle, and think of your- 

 self only. You have not the heart of a Chief ; why don't you 

 kill your own beef? You must have a stone in your chest, 

 and no heart at all, indeed ! " Tuba Mokoro producing no 

 impression on the transformed Chief, one of the men, the most 

 sedate of the party, who seldom spoke, took up the matter, 

 and tried the lion in another strain. In his slow quiet way 

 he expostulated with him on the impropriety of such conduct 

 to strangers, who had never injured him. " We were travelling 

 peaceably through the country back to our own Chief. We 

 never killed people, nor stole anything. The buffalo meat 

 was ours, not his, and it did not become a great Chief like 

 him to be prowling round in the dark, trying, like a hyena, 

 to steal the meat of strangers. He might go and hunt for 

 himself, as there was plenty of game in the forest." The 

 Pondoro, being deaf to reason, and only roaring the louder, the 

 men became angry, and threatened to send a ball through him 

 if he did not go away. They snatched up their guns to shoot 

 him, but he prudently kept in the dark, outside of the lumi- 

 nous circle made by our camp fires, and there they did not 

 like to venture. A little strychnine was put into a piece of 

 meat, and thrown to him, when he soon departed, and we 

 heard no more of the majestic sneaker. 



The Kebrabasa people were now plumper and in better 

 condition than on our former visits ; the harvest had been 

 abundant ; they had plenty to eat and drink, and they were 

 enjoying life as much as ever they could. At Defwe's 

 village, near where the ship lay on her first ascent, we found 

 two Mfumos or headmen, the son and son-in-law of the former 



M 



