THROUGH ZAMBESI A. 
3«)D 
the ruthless hand of man would be a dreadful crime. 
Ignoring all superstition, however, I thought I would 
risk the attack, especially as the villagers hard by had 
said that they had lost a number of goats lately through 
these obnoxious creatures. 
Having come to this conclusion, I stalked up on all- 
fours, until I got within a few yards of the ugly cus¬ 
tomer, when I gave him the benefit of six ounces of lead, 
driven by sixteen drachms of the best powder, that being 
the contents of both barrels of the elephant rifle. The 
two balls passed clean through the head. 
A few of the Angoni from the village soon came to the 
spot, and seemed very much pleased at the result, so that 
I w y as satisfied that whatever might be their particular 
persuasion, it did not lie in the reptile direction. 
Here and there along the banks of the river might be 
seen the Angoni larders, or, properly speaking, corn stores. 
They resemble small huts perched upon poles, sometimes 
seven feet above the ground, the store-room being thickly 
covered with mud. By this means the ravages of rats 
and other vermin are frustrated. 
The Angoni are thoroughly a tribe of slave kidnap¬ 
pers, believing implicitly in the idea that the people of 
other tribes are born for their use. This “fair game” 
of the valleys and plains has to be hunted. When a pro¬ 
pitious period arrives the Angoni horde sweeps like a 
devastating whirlwind among the neighbouring tribes of 
Ajawa and Manganja in the Shire valley. 
They lay w r aste the villages, pillage the gardens, and 
triumphantly bear away the human spoils, young men, 
women and children, who soon are offered for sale in the 
slave markets of the Angoni’s rugged home. 
The district under the sway of Chikuse is one of the 
greatest slave-trading centres in Africa. 
I have often seen the young warriors playing to show 
their cunning in stalking and agility in the capture of 
their human victims. Holding a buffalo-hide shield in the 
left hand, and grasping a kerry in the right, they would 
run rapidly forward with a number of wild bounds, dis¬ 
playing numerous excited evolutions of the chase and of 
