608 
GAME-LAWS — HYENAS. 
Chap. XXX. 
the only thing I had in then’ behalf, and the elephant soon fell.” 
One of Nyampungo’s men who remained with me, ran a little 
forward, when an opening in the trees gave us a view of the 
chase, and uttered loud prayers for success in the combat. I 
admu’ed the devout belief they all possessed in the actual exist¬ 
ence of unseen beings, and prayed that they might yet know 
that benignant One who views us all as His own. My own 
people, who are rather a degraded lot, remarked to me as I 
came up, ‘‘God gave it to us. He said to the old beast, ‘Go 
up there; men are come who will kill and eat you.’ ” These 
remarks are quoted to give the reader an idea of the native 
mode of expression. 
4s we were now in the country of stringent game-laws, we 
were obliged to send all the way back to Nyampungo, to give 
information to a certain person who had been left there by the 
real owner of tliis district to watch over his property, the owner 
liimself hving near the Zambesi. The side upon which the ele¬ 
phant fell, had a short broken tusk; the upper one, which was 
ours, was large and tliick. The Banyai remarked on our good 
luck. The men sent to give notice, came back late in the after¬ 
noon of the following day. They brought a basket of corn, a 
fowl, and a few strings of handsome beads, as a sort of thank- 
offering for our having killed it on their land, and said they had 
thaiJved the Barimo besides for our success, adding “ There it is; 
eat it and be glad.” Had we begun to cut it up before we got 
this permission, we should have lost the whole. They had brought 
a large party to eat their half, and they divided it with us in a 
friendly way. My men were delighted with the feast, though, by 
lying unopened a whole day, the carcase was pretty far gone. 
An astonishing number of hyaenas collected round, and kept up 
a loud laughter for two whole nights. Some of them do make 
a very good imitation of a laugh. I asked my men what the 
hyaenas were laughing at; as they usually give animals credit for 
a share of intelligence; they said, that they were laugliing because 
we could not take the whole, and that they would have plenty 
to eat as well as we. 
On coming to the part where the elephant was slain, we passed 
through grass so tall that it reminded me of that in the valley of 
Cassange. Insects are very numerous after the rains commence. 
