Chap. XXVHI. 
HILLS AND VILLAGES. 
569 
themselves and their gardens from their enemies; there is 
plenty of garden-ground outside the hills; here they are obliged 
to make pitfalls, to protect the grain against the hippopotami. 
As these animals had not been disturbed by guns, they were 
remarkably tame, and took no notice of our passing. We again 
saw numbers of young ones, not much larger than terrier dogs, 
sitting on the necks of their dams, the little saucy-looking heads 
cocking up between the old one’s ears; as they become a 
little older, they sit on the withers. Needing meat, we shot a 
full-grown cow, and found, as we had often done before, the flesh 
to be very much like pork. The height of this animal was 4 feet 
10 inches, and from the point of the nose to the root of the tail 
10 feet 6. They seem quarrelsome, for both males and females 
are found covered with scars, and young males are often killed by 
the elder ones: we met an instance of this near the falls. 
We came to a great many little villages among the hills, as if 
the inhabitants had reason to hide themselves from the observa¬ 
tion of their enemies. While detained cutting up the hippo¬ 
potamus, I ascended a hill called Mabue asula (stones smell badly), 
and though not the highest in sight, it was certainly not 100 feet 
lower than the most elevated. The boiling point of water showed 
it to be about.900 feet above the river, which was of the 
level of Linyanti. These hiUs seemed to my men of prodigious 
altitude, for they had been accustomed to ant-hills only. The 
mention of mountains that pierced the clouds, made them draw in 
their breath and hold their hands to their mouths. And when I 
told them that their previous description of Taba cheu had led 
me to expect something of the sort, I found that the idea of a 
cloud-capped mountain had never entered into their heads. The 
mountains certainly look high, from having abrupt sides. But 
I had recognised the fact by the point of ebullition of water, 
that they are of a considerably lower altitude than the top of the 
ridge we had left. They constitute in fact a sort of low fringe on 
the outside of the eastern ridge, exactly as the (apparently) high 
mountains of Angola (Golungo Alto) form an outer low fringe to 
the western ridge. I was much struck by the similarity of con¬ 
formation and nature of the rocks on both sides of the continent. 
But there is a difference in the structure of the subtending 
ridges, as may be understood by the annexed ideal geological 
section. 
