PREFATORY LETTER. li 



grasshoppers. The air hums joyfully with the sound of 

 insects on the wing, and among them the wailing note of the 

 musquito is not heard. Nor are the birds less vocal. The 

 cheerful chirp of the honey-guide was heard on all sides ; 

 and during their long journey it was often followed by the 

 Makololo (comprehending under this word all the Africans 

 of the party), and seldom led them wrong. Every evening 

 and morning the birds of the forest joined in full chorus, 

 and some of them had fine loud notes. One of them, called 

 by the Natives Mokma-reza ("the son-in-law of God"), 

 cries pala, pala (or rain, rain), a note of good omen. The 

 croaking of the crow is of bad omen; for "it is supposed 

 (as our Author tells us) to seal up the windows of heaven." 



Again (when describing the country on the south bank 

 of the Zambesi) he tells us that the birds are not generally 

 wanting in the power of song: "the chorus or body of 

 song is not much less in volume than it is in England; 

 but it is not so harmonious, and it sounded as if the birds 

 were singing in a foreign tongue." It is not that the 

 African birds are wanting in song, "but that they have 

 lacked poets to sing their praises ;" and there are, he adds, 

 comparatively few with gaudy plumage, like the birds of 

 Brazil. "The majority of them have a sober dress." 



But what most of all delighted his companions was the 

 fertility of the soil, and the abundance of large game. 

 Elephants, zebras, gnus, buffaloes and antelopes, swarmed 

 among some of the glades which they passed through ; and 

 droves of red pigs (the Potamochcerus) were seen near the 

 mouth of the Kafue. The habits of the animals — the way 

 in which the different herds went under the guidance of a 

 prudent leader — the fierce charge of the buffalo, sometimes 

 seen with its guardian birds (Textor erythrorhynchus) sitting on 

 its withers, which like true sharp-sighted guardians are ready 

 to sound the alarm, while the dull-sighted beast is feeding 

 — the clumsy gestures and sports of the elephants; their di- 



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