158 
THE NEW AFRICA 
up her mind all night to have. After going two miles further, 
the guide, suddenly emerging from the bush, brought us to the 
mass of reeds, as usual here, covering the Chobe, and, pointing 
with a lean long finger across the solemn reeds, uttered the one 
word * Matambanja ’; then turning without further notice of us, 
or word of explanation, glided bending through the bush like 
a spectre. So sudden was his departure that he was gone before 
I had time to hand him the strip of cloth intended as payment 
for his services. I even half expected to receive an arrow out of 
the bush, as a parting compliment from this wild-looking speci¬ 
men, who evidently was relieved to be out of sight of my 
uncanny appearance. As we had been depending on the gun to 
supply us with food, and so far had shot nothing, we were glad 
to breakfast on mabula fruit growing wild in the neighbourhood 
of our camping-ground. I intended as soon as we had been 
able to make the natives on the other side aware of our pre¬ 
sence, to go out shooting, and we were just in the act of lighting 
a large fire whose smoke should serve as a signal to Matambanja 
that travellers had arrived at the drift, when two men in a 
canoe emerged from the reeds, who were immediately engaged 
to take my message over to him, and also to ask for corn to eat. 
Expecting that it would take about two hours before the 
messengers returned from the chief, I went out alone to look 
for game, making a circuit occupying about that time, while the 
boys had orders to await any arrivals from over the way. The 
only buck I saw were some koodoo, so excessively wild that 
they would not allow me to get within reasonable range. This 
wildness indicated some unusual circumstance prevailing in 
the neighbourhood, which became apparent later. On return¬ 
ing from my walk, and finding that there was no news from over 
the way, I determined to have another trial at the koodoo, or 
whatever else might come in the way, and went out in the 
direction where they last had shown themselves. Before long, 
I crossed my former track, and was unpleasantly surprised to 
find the plain footmarks of a large lion that had dogged my 
steps while out in the morning. I followed along the track, 
