lii PREFATORY LETTER. 



minished size in these latitudes, and their enormous tusks — 

 the spear-hunts of the Makololo, and their songs of triumph 

 when a huge beast is down — all these things passed in 

 review before Dr Livingstone. Again and again he wished 

 for some photographic power to fix in true stature and pro- 

 portion these aspects of a grand and untamed nature. At 

 their resting-places, during night, they often heard the 

 roaring of the lion: but they did not fear him; for he is a 

 cowardly brute, and had plenty of timid animals to prey 

 upon in the woodlands round about. Before turning to 

 another subject, I may remark that the lordly giraife and the 

 ostrich are wanting in the fauna north of the Zambesi, and 

 have not so much as a name in the language of the people. 

 The white rhinoceros has also disappeared from that region ; 

 and the double-horned black species has become very rare. 

 South of the Zambesi the black species is more common, 

 and (like the buffalo) may be seen with its attendant guard- 

 bird (Bnphaga Africana). Before they reached the Zambesi 

 they saw a female elephant followed by three calves: and 

 again (as in the Barotse valley) the female hippopotamus 

 was seen swimming in the waters with her young crouch- 

 ing between her ears, or resting on her withers, 



While describing the country as a tropical paradise, we 

 must not forget the people. The Batoka are thinly scattered ; 

 and the allied tribes, between them and the Kafue, are in a 

 low grade of civilization. But the poor people are hospit- 

 able in their own way, and did their best to help the tra- 

 vellers. Their provisions are abundant; for the soil is 

 most grateful, and the climate is such as to secure a good 

 return for what is sown in it. The whole country abounds 

 in monstrous ant-hills (like those seen the year before) — 

 often fifty feet in diameter and now and then twenty feet 

 high — which supply the best garden ground in the coun- 

 try; and there the Natives plant their maize, pumpkins 

 and tobacco. 





