258 
DIFFICULTY IN USING THE GUN. 
CnAi>. XIV. 
always prefeiTed eating the game to killing it. Snlphur is the 
remedy most admired, and I remember Sechele giving a large 
price for a very small bit. He also gave some elephants’ tnslis, 
worth oOl, for another medicine which was to make liim invul¬ 
nerable to musket-balls. As I uniformly recommended that 
these things should be tested by experiment, a calf was anointed 
with the charm and tied to a tree. It proved decisive, and 
Sechele remarked it was pleasanter to be deceived than un¬ 
deceived.” I offered sulphur for the same pm^pose, but that was 
declined, even though a person came to the town afterwards 
and rubbed liis hands with a little before a successful trial of 
shooting at a mark. 
I explained to my men the nature of the gun, and tried to 
teach them, but they would soon have expended all the ammu¬ 
nition in my possession. I was thus obliged to do all the 
shooting myself ever afterwards. Their inability was rather a 
misfortime; for, in consequence of working too soon after having 
been bitten by the lion, the bone of my left arm had not united 
well. Continual hard manual labom’, and some falls from ox- 
back, lengthened the ligament by wiiich the ends of the bones 
were united, and a false joint was the consequence. The limb 
has never been painful, as those of my companions on the day 
of the rencontre with the lion have been, but, there being a joint 
too many, I could not steady the rifle, and was always obliged to 
shoot with the piece resting on the left shoulder. I wanted 
steadiness of aim, and it generally happened that the more 
hungry the party became, the more frequently I missed the 
animals. 
We spent a Sunday on our way up to the confluence of the 
Leeba and Leeambye. Eains had fallen here before we came, 
and the woods had put on their gayest hue. Flowers of great 
beauty and cmdous forms gTow everywhere; they are unlike 
those in the south, and so are the trees. Many of the forest-tree 
leaves are palmated ’'and largely developed; the trunks are 
covered with lichens, and the abundance of ferns wliich appear 
in the woods, shows we are now in a more humid climate than 
any to the south of the Barotse valley. The gTound begins to 
swarm with insect life; and in the cool, pleasant mornings the 
