Chap. III. ELEPHANTS™NEW SPECIES OF ANTELOPE. 
71 
The plants and bushes were dry; but wild indigo abounded, as 
indeed it does over large tracts of Africa. It is called mohetolo, 
or the “ changer,” by the boys, who dye their ornaments of straw 
with the juice. There are two kinds of cotton in the country, 
and the Mashona, who convert it into cloth, dye it blue with tliis 
plant. 
We found the elephants in prodigious numbers on the southern 
bank. They come to drink by night, and after having slaked 
their thirst—-in doing which they throw large quantities of water 
over themselves, and are heard, while enjoying the refreshment, 
screaming with delight—^they evince them horror of pitfalls by 
setting off in a straight line to the desert, and never diverge till 
they are eight or ten mdes off. They are smaller here than in 
the countries further south. At the Limpopo, for instance, they 
are upwards of twelve feet high; here, only eleven: further north 
we shall find them nine feet only. The koodoo, or tolo, seemed 
smaller too than those we had been accustomed to see. We saw 
specimens of the kuabaoba, or straight-horned rlunoceros {R. 
Oswellii), which is a variety of the white (i^. simus ); and we 
found that, from the horn being projected downwards, it did not 
obstruct the hne of vision; so that this species is able to be 
much more wary than its neighbours. 
We discovered an entirely new species of antelope, called leche 
or lechwi. It is a beautiful water-antelope of a light brownish- 
yeUow colour. Its horns—exactly like those of the Aigoceros 
ellipsiprimnus, the water-buck, or tumdga of the Bechuanas— 
rise from the head with a sHght bend backwards, then curve for¬ 
wards at the points. The chest, beUy, and orbits are nearly 
white, the front of the legs and ankles deep brown. From the 
horns, along the nape to the withers, the male has a small mane 
of the same yellowish colour with the rest of the skin, and the 
tad. has a tuft of black ham. It is never found a mile from water; 
islets in marshes and rivers are its favourite haunts, and it is 
quite unknown except in the central humid bashi of Africa. 
Having a good deal of curiosity, it presents a noble appearance 
as it stands gazing with head erect at the approaching stranger. 
Wlien it resolves to decamp, it lowers its head, and lays its horns 
doTO to a level with the withers; it then begins with a waddling 
