CHAPTER VI 
MAKANYANGA THE PHILOSOPHER 
In 1903, whilst hunting between the Locheringo 
and Msingie Rivers, in Portuguese Nyassaland, as 
we had been absent some six weeks from camp—a 
much longer period than I had anticipated—food 
for my men and the stock of calico and beads 
requisite to purchase provisions from the natives ran 
out, and, owing to the impracticability of arranging a 
rendezvous on account of my moving about from 
place to place as the spoor of elephants took me, to 
send for supplies to my camp in the Golambepo 
Hills, some five days’journey distant, was out of the 
question. Elephants, moreover, were plentiful, and 
as they would probably have moved away from 
the district ere I could return from a personal visit 
to camp for provisions, I was at my wits’ end to 
discover a way out of the difficulty. At this 
juncture, my head tracker, Makanyanga, came to 
my assistance by experiencing what I can only 
aptly term a ‘ brain wave.’ I had just shot a 
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