Chap. II. DIFFICULT TRAVELLING. 41 



clung to the native mind. The mere fact that such absurd 

 notions are permanent, even in the entire absence of 

 literature, invests the religious ideas of these people also 

 with importance, as fragments of the wreck of the primi- 

 tive faith floating down the stream of time. 



We waded across the rapid Luia, which took us up to 

 the waist, and was about forty yards wide. The water 

 was discoloured at the time, and we were not without 

 apprehension that a crocodile might chance to fancy a 

 white man for dinner. Next day one of the men crawled 

 over the black rocks to within ten yards of a sleeping 

 hippopotamus, and shot him through the brain. The 

 weather being warm, the body floated in a few hours, and 

 some of us had our first trial of hippopotamus flesh. It is 

 a cross-grained meat, something between pork and beef, — 

 pretty good food when one is hungry and can get nothing 

 better. When we reached the foot of the mountain named 

 Chipereziwa, whose perpendicular rocky sides are clothed 

 with many-coloured lichens, our Portuguese companion 

 informed us there were no more obstructions to navi- 

 gation, the river being all smooth above ; he had hunted 

 there and knew it well. Supposing that the object of our 

 trij3 was accomplished we turned back ; but two natives, 

 who came to our camp at night, assured us that a cataract, 

 called Morumbwa, did still exist in front. Drs. Living- 

 stone and Kirk then decided to go forward with three 

 Makololo and settle the question for themselves. It was 

 as tough a bit of travel as they ever had in Africa, and 

 after some painful marching the Badema guides refused to 

 go further ; " the Banyai," they said, " would be angry if 

 they showed white men the country ; and there was 

 besides no practicable approach to the spot, neither ele- 

 phant, nor hippopotamus, nor even a crocodile could reach 

 the cataract." The slopes of the mountains on each side of 

 the river, now not 300 yards wide, and without the flattish 



