268 
ALLIGATORS. 
Chap. XV. 
any of tlie lagoons in the Barotse valley, or a man or dog going 
in for the purpose of bringing out a dead one, is almost sm^e to 
be seized, though the alligators may not appear on the surface. 
When employed in looking for food they keep out of sight; they 
fish chiefly by night. When eating, they make a loud champing 
noise, Avhich when once heard is never forgotten. 
The young, wliich had come out of the nests where we spent 
the night, did not appear wary; they were about ten inches 
long, with yellow eyes, and pupil merely a perpendicular slit. 
They were all marked with transverse stripes of pale gveen and 
brown, half an inch broad. Wlien speared, they bit the weapon 
savagely, though their teeth were but partially developed, 
uttering at the same time a sharp bark, like that of a whelp 
when it first begins to use its voice. I could not ascertain 
whether the dam devours them, as reported, or whether the 
iclmeumon has the same reputation here as in Egypt. Probably 
the Barotse and Bayeiye would not look upon it as a bene¬ 
factor ; they prefer to eat the eggs themselves, and be their own 
ichneumons. The white of the egg does not coagulate, but the 
yolk does, and tliis is the only part eaten. 
As the population increases the alligators will decrease, for 
their nests will be oftener found; the principal check on theh 
inordinate multij)lication seems to be man. They are more 
savage and commit more misclnef in the Leeambye, than in any 
other river. After dancing long in the moonhght nights, young 
men run down to the water to wash off the dust, and cool them¬ 
selves before going to bed, and are thus often carried away. 
One wonders they are not afraid ; but the fact is, they have as 
little sense of danger impending over them as the hare has when 
not actually pursued by the hound ; and in many rencontres, in 
which they escape, they had not time to be afraid, and only 
laugh at the circumstance afterwards: there is a want of calm 
reflection. In many cases, not referred to in this book, I feel 
more horror now in thinking on dangers I have run, than I did 
at the time of their occmTence. 
When we reached the part of the river opposite to the village 
of Manenko, the first female chief whom we encountered, two of 
the people called Balunda, or Balonda, came to us in their little 
canoe. From them we learned that Kolimbota, one of our party. 
