Chap. XXYIII. 
DEVICES FOR KILLING GAME. 
575 
high trees overhanging the paths by which the elephants come, 
and then use a large spear with a handle nearly as thick as a 
man’s wrist, and four or five feet long. When the animal comes 
beneath they throw the spear, and if it enters between the ribs 
above, as the blade is at least twenty inches long by two broad, 
the motion of the handle, as it is aided by knocking against 
the trees, makes frightful gashes witliin, and soon causes death. 
They kill them also by means of a spear, inserted in a beam of 
wood, winch, being suspended on the branch of a tree by a cord 
attached to a latch fastened in the path, and intended to be 
struck by the animal’s foot, leads to the fall of the beam, and, 
the spear being poisoned, causes death in a few hours. 
We were detained by continuous rains several days at this 
island. The clouds rested upon the tops of the lulls as they came 
from the eastward, and then poured down plenteous showers on 
the valleys below. As soon as we could move, Tomba Nyama, 
the head-man of the island, volunteered the loan of a canoe to 
cross a small river, called the Chongwe, which we found to be 
about fifty or sixty yards broad and flooded. All this part of the 
country was well known to Sekwebu, and he informed us that, 
when he passed through it as a boy, the inliabitants possessed 
abundance of cattle, and there were no tsetse. The existence of 
the insect now, shows that it may return in company with the 
larger game. The vegetation along the bank was exceedingly 
rank, and the bushes so tangled that it was difficult to get on. 
The paths had been made by the wild animals alone, for the 
general pathway of the people is the river, in then* canoes. We 
usually followed the footpaths of the game, and of these there 
was no lack. Buffaloes, zebras, pallalis, and waterbucks abound, 
and there is also a great abundance of wild pigs, koodoos, and 
the black antelope. We got one buffalo, as he was roUmg him¬ 
self in a pool of mud. He had a large piece of skin torn off his 
flanlv, it was believed by an alligator. 
We were struck by the fact that, as soon as we came between 
the ranges of lulls which flank the Zambesi, the rains felt warm. 
At sumdse the thermometer stood at from 82° to 86° ; at midday, in 
the coolest shade, -namely, in my Little tent, under a shady tree, at 
96° to 98°; and at sunset it was 86°. This is different from any¬ 
thing we experienced in the interior, for these rains always bring 
