Chap. VIII. OUR VOLUNTEER FIREMAN. 177 



the men, lias volunteered to take the sole charge of our fire, 

 and is to receive for his services the customary payment of 

 the heads and necks of all the beasts we kill ; and, except on 

 the days when only guinea-fowl are shot, he thus gets 

 abundance of food. He bears our fowl diet resignedly for a 

 few days, and then, if no large game is killed, he comes and 

 expostulates as seriously, as he did with the lion that envied 

 us our buffalo meat, " Morena, my lord, a hungry man 

 cannot fill his stomach with the head of a bird ; he is killed 

 with hunger for want of meat, and will soon, from sheer 

 - weakness, be unable to carry the wood for the fire ; he ought 

 to have an entire bird to save hini from dying of starvation." 

 His request being reasonable, and guinea-fowl abundant, it 

 is of course complied with* Guinea-fowl are conveniently 

 numerous on the Zambesi during the dry season ; they then 

 collect in large flocks and come daily to the river to drink, 

 and roost at night on the tall acacia-trees on its banks- 

 We usually fall in with two or three flocks in the course of 

 the day's march, and find that they are all fat, and in 

 excellent condition. In a few spots, as at Shupanga, a 

 second variety is found, which has a pretty black feathery 

 crest, and is a much handsomer bird than the common one ; 

 the native name is Khanga Tore, and its spots are a fine 

 light blue. Naturalists call it Numida cristata. 



A dozen fires are nightly kindled in the camp ; and these, 

 being replenished from time to time by the men who are 

 awakened by the cold, are kept burning until daylight. 

 Abundance of dry hard wood is obtained with little 

 trouble; and burns beautifully. After the great business 

 of cooking and eating is over, all sit round the camp-fires, 

 and engage in talking or singing. Every evening one of the 

 Batoka plays his sansa, and continues at it until far into 



N 



