122 
THE NEW AFRICA 
the Chobe, coming out some distance ahead and joining the 
river again at the point where we rested. This country is 
par excellence the home of the rhinoceros, the whole belts 
being thick with their spoor. 
A short distance onwards towards evening I saw two letzwee 
buck resting behind a bush, and, stalking up, shot first the one 
LETZWEE BUCK-HEAD 
and then the other, who stood looking at me in surprise about 
eighty yards off. One of the Macheeayee accompanying us made 
a splendid shot at a large puff adder, viper a arietans, with his 
barbed assegai. The beast had brought the leading bearers to 
a halt by puffing loudly, and while they were looking at her she 
wickedly kept sticking out her forked tongue till one of the 
number threw his spear and nailed the beast to the earth, when 
she was soon despatched with sticks. In the fangs, which, when 
measured, proved nearly an inch long, the clear yellow drops of 
poison were visible, moving backwards and forwards in the 
tube of the semi-transparent perforated teeth, as the equilibrium 
of the head was altered. The nature of these serpents is very 
sluggish, and they only bite when actually molested or trodden 
on by accident. But they also display an unwillingness to move 
