132 



MATABELE LAND. 



Here too ahornbill's nest was found. " The boys," 

 says Frank Oates, "brought me a young hornbill, 

 and I was taken to the nest. A hollow tree, with 

 a hole in it, high up, was where the bird had come 

 from. They poked out and pulled the wing-feathers 

 off the old hen when I was not looking. I kept 

 both birds. Karl says the old hen never leaves the 

 young, the cock feeding them all, and that she gets 



AFRICAN GREY HORNBILL. — ToccilS HOSUtUS. 



quite bare of feathers. The number of young is 

 two. The natives, he says, are very fond of them 

 to eat, roasted." 



The party next moved forward (February 12th) 

 to the Impakwe, a farther distance of about six miles. 

 " Here," writes the traveller, "is some distinct stone- 

 work forming a circular wall, inside which are remains 

 of bricks coated with a substance as if smelting had 

 been done here. No mortar has been used, and the 

 work is rough and I should say of no great antiquity, 

 the stones being small and loose and easily displaced, 



used by the natives for making beer, though less extensively so than 

 the latter {Grewia flavd), the moretlwa of the Bechuanas, the liquid 

 drawn from which ferments quickly and possesses considerable strength. 



