Chap. IX. hippopotami. 231 



only foreigners these men had ever seen. As we had 

 no desire to pass for people of that nation — quite the 

 contrary — we usually made a broad line of demarcation 

 by saying that we were English, and the English neither 

 bought, sold, nor held black people as slaves, but wished to 

 put a stop to the slave-trade altogether. 



We called upon our friend, Mpende, in passing. He 

 provided a hut for us, with new mats spread on the floor. 

 Having told him that we were hurrying on because the 

 rains were near, " Are they near ? " eagerly inquired an 

 old counsellor, "and are we to have plenty of rain this 

 year ? " "We could only say that it was about the usual 

 time for the rains to commence ; and that there were the 

 usual indications in great abundance of clouds floating 

 westwards, but that we knew nothing more than they did 

 themselves. 



The hippopotami are more wary here than higher up, 

 as the natives hunt them with guns. Having shot one on 

 a shallow sandbank, our men undertook to bring it over 

 to the left bank, in order to cut it up with greater ease. 

 It was a fine fat one, and all rejoiced in the hope of eating 

 the fat for butter, with our hard dry cakes of native meal. 

 Our cook was sent over to cut a choice piece for dinner, 

 but returned with the astonishing intelligence that the 

 carcass was gone. They had been hoodwinked, and were 

 very much ashamed of themselves. A number of Banyai 

 came to assist in rolling it ashore, and asserted that it was 

 all shallow water. They rolled it over and over towards 

 the land, and, finding the rope we had made fast to it, 

 as they said, an encumbrance, it was unloosed. All were 

 shouting and talking as loud as they could bawl, when 

 suddenly our expected feast plumped into a deep hole, 

 as the Banyai intended it should do. When sinking, all 

 the Makololo jumped in after it, One caught frantically 

 at the tail; another grasped a foot; a third seized the 



