PREFATORY LETTER. lxiii 



ling with a people who do not know how to pray, I there- 

 fore offered the only thing I had, in their behalf, and the 

 elephant soon fell." The travelling crew were indeed less 

 religious; and they thought (like Hector) that the best of 

 omens was to fight the enemy and beat him if they could. 

 One of them however said, as Livingstone came up to 

 them, "God gave it to us;" and then turning round ad- 

 dressed the carcass — "Go up there! men are come who 

 will kill and eat you." 



But the feast could not begin that day: for by a law in 

 the country south of the Zambesi, the side of every beast, killed 

 in hunting, which first comes to the ground is the property of 

 the neighbouring Chief; and no one dares touch the carcass 

 till he or his agents are present to see fair play. By good 

 luck the upper tusk was the best ; and after a division of the 

 spoil it was the property of the hunters. Next day a large 

 party came from the Chief with corn and a fowl and some 

 other gifts to them for having slain the elephant on his land. 

 They thanked the Barimo for the hunters' success, and then 

 added, " There it is, eat and be glad!" There was a large 

 party to join in the noisy feast; but there was meat in 

 abundance for them all; and when they had retired, they 

 for two whole nights heard the loud laughter of great packs 

 of hyaenas which had gathered round the offal. " They are 

 laughing, said one of the crew, because we could not take in 

 the whole, and that they have plenty to eat as well as we." 



But the crew of travellers were soon to leave the simple- 

 hearted hospitable Natives, and to find their way through 

 tribes of a far different character — men thoroughly corrupted 

 by the slave-dealers of a Christian state, and accustomed to 

 acts of treachery and extortion. The men, as they journeyed 

 through the Mopana country, robbed many nests of the 

 korwe (or red-beaked hornbill), of which a long and curious 

 account is given; and the honey-guides enabled them to pro- 

 cure quantities of honey. They became utterly fool-hardy in 



