Chap. XXX, 
SLOW TKAVELLIXC. 
615 
period of its discovery. The reports brought by my other party 
from Loanda of the value of wax, had induced some of my 
present companions to bring small quantities of it to Tete, but, 
not knowing the proper mode of preparing it, it was so dark 
coloured that no one would purchase it; I afterwards saw a 
little at Kilimane, which had been procured from the natives 
somewhere in this region. 
Though we are now approaching the Portuguese settlement, 
the country is still full of large game. My men killed six buffalo 
calves out of a herd we met. The abundance of these animals, 
and also of antelopes, shows the insufficiency of the bow and arrow 
to lessen thek numbers. There are also a great many lions 
and hyaenas, and there is no check upon the increase of the 
former, for the people, believing that the souls of thek chiefs 
enter into them, never attempt to kill them ; they even believe 
that a chief may metamorphose hiniself into a lion, kill any one 
he chooses, and then return to the human form; therefore when 
they see one they commence clapping their hands, which is the 
usual mode of salutation here. The consequence is, that lions 
and hyaenas are so abundant, that we see little huts made in trees, 
indicating the places where some of the inhabitants have slept 
when benighted in the fields. xAs numbers of my men frequently 
left the line of march in order to take out the korwes from them 
nests, or follow the honey-guides, they excited the astonishment 
of our guides, who were constantly warning them of the danger 
they thereby incurred from lions. I was often considerably 
ahead of the main body of my men on this account, and was 
obliged to stop every hour or two, but, the sun being excessively 
hot by day, I was glad of the excuse for resting. We could 
make no such prodigious strides as officers in the Arctic regions 
are able to do. Ten or twelve miles a day were a good march 
for both the men and myself, and it was not the length of the 
marches, but continuing day after day to perform the same dis¬ 
tance, that was so fatiguing. It was in this case much longer than 
appears on the map, because we kept out of the way of villages. 
I drank less than the natives when riding, but all my clothing 
was now constantly damp from the moisture which was imbibed 
in large quantities at every pond. One does not stay on these 
occasions to prepare water with alum or anything else, but 
