Chap. XXIX. 
GAME-LAWS. 
599 
mile to the opposite end of the island, and swam to the main¬ 
land with their probosces above the water, and, no canoe being 
near, they escaped. They swim strongly, with the proboscis 
erect in the air. I was not very desirous to have one of these 
animals killed, for we understood that when we passed Mpende, 
we came into a country where the game-laws are strictly en¬ 
forced. The lands of each chief are very well defined, the 
boundaries being usually marked by rivulets, great numbers of 
which flow into the Zambesi from both banks, and, if an elephant 
is wounded on one man’s land and dies on that of another, the' 
under hah* of the carcase is claimed by the lord of the soil; and so 
stringent is the law, that the hunter cannot begin at once to cut 
up his own elephant; but must send notice to the lord of the soil 
on which it lies, and wait until that personage sends one autho¬ 
rized to see a fair partition made. If the hunter should begin to 
cut up before the agent of the landovmer arrives, he is liable to 
lose both the tusks and all the flesh. The liind leg of a buffalo 
must also be given to the man on whose land the animal was 
grazing, and a still larger quantity of the eland, which here and 
everywhere else in the country is esteemed right royal food. In 
the country above Zumbo we did not find a vestige of this law; and 
but for the fact that it existed in the country of the Bamapela, 
far to the south of this, I should have been disposed to regard it 
in the same light as I do the payment for leave to pass—an im¬ 
position levied on him who is seen to be weak because in the 
hands of his slaves. The only game-laws in the interior are, that 
the man who first wounds an animal, though he has inflicted but 
a mere scratch, is considered the killer of it, the second is entitled 
to a hind-quarter, and the third to a fore-leg. The chiefs are 
generally entitled to a share as tribute; in some parts it is the 
breast, hi others the whole of the ribs and one fore-leg. I gene¬ 
rally respected this law, although exceptions are sometimes made 
when animals are killed by guns. The knowledge that he who 
succeeds in reachiug the wounded beast first, is entitled to a share, 
stimulates the whole party to greater exertions in despatching 
it. One of my men, having a knowledge of elephant medicine, 
was considered the leader in the hunt; he went before the others, 
examined the animals, and on his decision all depended. If he 
decided to attack a herd, the rest went boldly on; but if he 
