KING SOLOMON AND THE ANTS. 843 



that when King Solomon reigned, and all the beasts acknowledged his autho- 

 rity, the ants came to complain that the elephants trod upon them and killed 

 them by hundreds. The elephants made light of it, and said that, as they 

 were the strongest of all beasts, the ants should get out of their way. The 

 ants denied their strength, and offered to fight them. The bystanders laughed, 

 but King Solomon appointed place and time; so the elephants sent ten or twelve 

 of their biggest, and the ants came in myriads. At the first onset the ants were 

 crushed by thousands, but almost immediately the foremost elephants, knock- 

 ing over everything in their way, rushed to the nearest water, for their trunks 

 and ears, and eyes, and lips, and every part tender enough for an ant to nip 

 was full of them, cutting their way in deeper and deeper. The other elephants 

 thereupon said that it was beneath their dignity to fight with creatures so 

 insignificant, but Solomon gave it for the ants; and from that day forward, 

 let lions and elephants boast as they may, they tread carefully when they see 

 ants before them, and no one since has ever ventured to offer to fight them. 

 We had ourselves experience of their power, and on one occasion nearly set 

 our encampment on fire in trying to turn their course by strewing live embers 

 about, fire being the only thing they fear. 



" The approach to the Rovuma is marked by the sudden rising of great 

 mountainous masses of granite rock, often of grotesque shapes, and seem- 

 ingly strewed about by accident. The country we had passed had not always 

 been so bare of people ; it forms part of the great waste made by the raids of 

 the Mavitis and Gwangwaras. We found the first village we came to inha- 

 bited by Gindo fugitives from near Kilwa, who, being timid folks, are ter- 

 ribly bullied by an otherwise insignificant Yao chief, named Golilo. They 

 begged us to make him a present, lest he should revenge our not doing so 

 on them. As we passed on, we heard that a coast caravan had kidnapped 

 one of the villagers — the first trace of the slave trade. By the roadside I 

 saw an iron furnace, hollowed out of an ant-hill. It was not at work, but 

 there was some ore close by prepared for smelting, of which I got specimens. 

 The smelters are Makuas, but the Mweras are the best smiths. 



" We had just crossed a broad dry river-bed, when we met what we 

 took at first for a caravan ; but it turned out to be a fugitive chief and his 

 followers, fled from the other side of the river. They told us that the Gwang- 

 waras were out on a raid before us; that some hunters, in searching for game, 

 had seen them and given the alarm, so they were fleeing they could not tell 

 whither. 



" We went to a village of some three hundred houses, under a Makua 

 chief. Livingstone had seen the same people on the other side of the Ro- 

 vuma ; their chief Makochero had moved to this place. At the time of our 

 visit the old man had lately died, and his son was not yet formally installed. 

 Here we met another band of fugitives, who said that the Gwangwaras were 



