DEVICES FOR KITING GAME. 537 



Banyai. The hills abound in buffaloes, and elephants are 

 numerous, and many are killed by the people on both 

 banks. They erect stages on high trees overhanging the 

 paths by which the elephants come, and then use a large 

 spear with a handle nearly as thick as a man's wrist, and 

 four or five feet long. When the animal comes beneath 

 they throw the spear, and if it enters between the ribs 

 above, as the blade is at least twenty inches long by two 

 broad, the motion of the handle, as it is aided by knocking 

 against the trees, makes frightful gashes within, and soon 

 causes death. They kill them also by means of a spear, 

 inserted in a beam of wood, which, being suspended on the 

 branch of a tree by a cord attached to a latch fastened in 

 the path, and intended to be struck by the animal's foot, 

 leads to the fall of the beam, and, the spear being poisoned, 

 causes death in a few hours. 



We were detained by continuous rains several days at 

 this island. The clouds rested upon the tops of the hills 

 as they came from the eastward, and then poured down 

 plenteous showers on the valleys below. As soon as we 

 could move, Tomba Nyama, the head-man of the island, 

 volunteered the loan of a canoe to cross a small river, 

 called the Chongwe, which we found to be about fifty or 

 sixty yards broad and flooded. All this part of the country 

 was well known to Sekwebu, and he informed us that, 

 when he passed through it as a boy, the inhabitants 



?ossessed abundance of cattle, and there were no tsetse, 

 he existence of the insect now, shows that it may return 

 in company with the larger game. The vegetation along 

 the bank was exceedingly rank, and the bushes so tangled 

 that it was difficult to get on. The paths had been made 

 by the wild animals alone, for the general pathway of the 

 people is the river, in their canoes. We usually followed 

 the footpaths of the game, and of these there was no lack. 

 Buffaloes, zebras, pallahs, and waterbucks abound, and 

 there is also a great abundance of wild pigs, koodoos, 

 and the black antelope. We got one buffalo, as he was 

 rolling himself in a pool of mud. He had a large piece of 

 skin torn off his flank, it was believed by an alligator. 



We were struck by the fact that, as soon as we came 

 between the ranges of hills which flank the Zambesi, the 

 rains felt warm. At sunrise the thermometer stood at 

 from 82 to 86° ; at midday, in the coolest shade, namely, 

 in my little tent, under a shady tree, at g6° to 98 ; and 



