THE LEGHWI 
Barotsi Valley, on the Upper Zambesi, by means of drives in which several 
hundred natives took part. Sometimes the antelopes were driven into deep 
water and speared from canoes; at others they were driven on to thousands 
of spear-heads concealed in the grass, which plunged into their chests and 
bellies as they dashed on to them, killing them in large numbers. These 
great annual lechwi hunts were undertaken not so much for the sake of 
the meat as of the skins of the slain antelopes, which are greatly valued by 
the natives for cloaks and rugs. 
In the neighbourhood of Lake Mweru, in North-Western Rhodesia, a 
race of lechwi antelopes is found in which the males turn partially black, 
but it does not yet appear to be known whether this colour phase is seasonal, 
or if, when once attained, it is permanent, and becomes gradually more 
marked with age. In the young males and females at all ages the coloration 
is exactly as in the typical red lechwi, but in old males the sides of the 
neck and face, as well as the upper parts of the body and the front and 
outer surfaces of the limbs become blackish brown. This black coloration, 
however, never becomes so intense or so generally diffused over the body 
as in the case of old males of the typical white -eared kob. This dark- 
coloured lechwi has been described as a distinct species under the name 
of Cobus smithemani , but in habits and mode of life it does not appear to 
differ in any way from the typical race, in which both the males and females 
at all ages retain the uniform red coloration. 
133 
