288 LIFE OF DA VID LIVINGSTONE, LL.D. 



lagoons and marshes, which are common in the course of the great 

 rivers of South Africa, mark the spot where extensive lakes existed when 

 the waters passed off to the sea at a higher level than they do at the 

 present day. 



As the miserable little steamer could not carry all the men they required 

 in this more extended expedition, they were compelled to place some of them 

 in boats, which were towed astern. Unfortunately one of these capsized, and 

 one of the Makololo men was drowned. At Mboma, where the people were 

 eager to sell any quantity of food, the party were entertained by a native 

 musician, who drew excruciating notes from a kind of one-stringed violin. 

 As he threatened to serenade them all night, he was asked if he would not 

 perish from cold. "Oh no," he replied; "I shall spend the night with my 

 white comrades in the big canoe ; I have often heard of the white men, but 

 have never seen them till now, and I must sing and play well to them." A 

 small piece of cloth bought him off, and he departed well satisfied. 



On the banks were many hippopotami traps, which " consist of a beam 

 of wood five or six feet long, armed with a spear-head or hardwood spike co- 

 vered with poison, and suspended by a forked pole to a cord, which, coming 

 down to the path, is held by a catch, to be set free when the animal treads on 

 it. . . One got frightened by the ship, as she was steaming close to the 



bank. In its eager hurry to escape, it rushed on shore, and ran directly under 

 a trap, when down came the heavy beam on its back, driving the poisoned 

 spear-head a foot deep into its flesh. In its agony it plunged back into the 

 river, to die in a few hours, and afterwards furnished a feast for the natives. 

 The poison on the spear-head does not affect the meat, except the part around 

 the wound, which is cut out and thrown away." 



In the Shire marshes, in addition to abundance of the large four-footed 

 game, water-fowl of many kinds were seen in prodigious numbers. Dr. Living- 

 stone says : — 



" An hour at the mast-head unfolds novel views of life in an African 

 marsh. Near the edge, and on the branches of some favourite tree, rest 

 scores of plotuses and cormorants, which stretch their snake-like necks, and in 

 mute amazement turn one eye and then another towards the approaching 

 monster. The pretty ardetta, of a light yellow colour when at rest, but 

 seemingly of a pure white when flying, takes wing and sweeps across the 

 green grass in large numbers, often showing us where buffaloes are, by perch- 

 ing on their backs. Flocks of ducks, of which the kind called soriri is most 

 abundant, being night feeders, meditate quietly by the small lagoons, until 

 startled by the noise of the steam machinery. Pelicans glide over the water 

 catching fish, while the scopus and large herons peer intently into the pools. 

 The large black and white spur-winged goose springs up and circles round to 

 find out what the disturbance is, and then settles down again with a splash. 



