Chap. XXIX. GAME-LAWS . 391 



While opposite the village of a liead-man called Mosusa 

 two male elephants, and a third not full- grown, took refuge on 

 an island in the river. This was the first instance I had ever 

 seen of a comparatively young one with the males, for they 

 usually remain with the female herd till they are as large as 

 their dams. The inhabitants were anxious that my men should 

 attack them, as they do much damage in the gardens on the 

 islands. The men went, but the elephants ran to the opposite 

 end of the island, and escaped to the mainland by swimming 

 with their probosces erect in the air. I was not very desirous to 

 have one of these animals killed, for we understood that, when 

 we passed Mpende, we came into a country where the game- 

 laws are strictly enforced. The lands of each chief are well 

 defined, generally by rivulets, and, if an elephant is wounded 

 on one man's land and dies on that of another, the under halt 

 of the carcase is claimed by the lord of the soil ; and so 

 stringent is the law, that the hunter may not cut up his own 

 elephant without sending notice to the lord of the soil, and 

 waiting until that personage sends his representative to see a 

 fair partition made. The hind leg of a buffalo must also be 

 given to the man on whose land the animal was grazing, and a 

 still larger quantity of the eland, which here and everywhere 

 else in the country is esteemed right royal food. The only 

 game-laws in the interior are, that the man who first wounds 

 an animal, though he has inflicted but a mere scratch, is 

 considered the killer of it, while the second is entitled to a 

 hind-quarter, the third to a fore-leg, and the chief to a 

 royalty, consisting in some parts of the breast, in other parts 

 of the ribs and one fore-leg. The knowledge that he who 

 succeeds in reaching the wounded beast first is entitled to a 

 share stimulates the whole party to greater exertions in de- 

 spatching it. 



When near Mosusa's village we passed a rivulet called 

 Chowe, now running with rain-water. The inhabitants ex- 

 tract a little salt from the sand when it is dry, and all the 

 people of the adjacent country come to purchase it from them 

 This was the first salt we had seen since leaving Angola, none 

 being found in the countries of the Balonda or Barotse. We 

 heard of salt-pans about a fortnight west of Xaliele, and I got 

 a small supply at that town, but this had long since been 



