198 CHICOVA PLAINS. CHAP. VIII. form benevolent deeds at home, the tired hunter, though trying hard to live in charity with all men, is strongly tempted to give it up by bringing only sufficient meat for the three whites and leaving the rest, thus sending the "idle ungrateful poor" supperless to bed. And yet it is only by continuance in well-doing, even to the length of what the worldlywise call weakness, that the conviction is produced any where that our motives are high enough to secure sincere respect. The Chicova plains are very fertile, have rich dark soil, and formerly supported a numerous population; but desolating wars and slaving had swept away most of the inhabitants. In spite of a rank growth of weeds, cotton still remains in the deserted gardens of ruined villages. A jungle of mimosa, ebony, and "wait-a-bit" thorn lies between the Chicova flats and the cultivated plain, on which stand the villages of the chief Chitora. He brought us a present of food and drink, because, as he, with the innate politeness of an African, said, he "did not wish us to sleep hungry: he had heard of the doctor when he passed down, and had a great desire to see and converse with him; but he was a child then, and could not speak in the presence of great men. He was glad that he had seen the English now, and was sorry that his people were away, or he should have made them cook for us." All his subsequent conduct showed him. to be sincere. Many of the African women are particular about the water they use for drinking and cooking, and prefer that which is filtered through sand. To secure this, they scrape holes in the sand-banks beside the stream, and scoop up the water, which slowly filters through, rather than take it from the equally clear and limpid river. This practice is common in CHAP. VIII. HORROR OF WHITE MEN. 199 the Zambesi, the Rovuma, and Lake Nyassa; and some of the Portuguese at Tette have adopted the native custom, and send canoes to a low island in the middle of the river for water. Chitora's people also obtained their supply from shallow wells in the sandy bed of a small rivulet close to the village. The habit may have arisen from observing the unhealthiness of the main stream at certain seasons. During nearly nine months in the year, ordure is deposited around countless villages along the thousands of miles drained by the Zambesi. When the heavy rains come down, and sweep the vast fetid accumulation into the torrents, the water is polluted with filth; and, but for the precaution mentioned, the natives would prove themselves as little fastidious as those in London who drink the abomination poured into the Thames by Reading and Oxford. It is no wonder that sailors suffered so much from fever after drinking African river water, before the present admirable system of condensing it was adopted in our navy. There must be something in the appearance of white men frightfully repulsive to the unsophisticated natives of Africa; for, on entering villages previously unvisited by Europeans, if we met a child coming quietly and unsuspectingly toward us, the moment he raised his eyes and saw the men in "bags," he would take to his heels in an agony of terror, such as we might feel if we met a live Egyptian mummy at the door of the British Museum. Alarmed by the child's wild outcries, the mother rushes out of her hut, but darts back again at the first glimpse of the same fearful apparition. Dogs turn tail, and scour off in dismay; and hens, abandoning their chickens, fly screaming to the tops of the houses. The so lately peaceful village becomes a scene of confusion and hubbub until calmed by the laughing assurance of our 200 WILD ANIMALS' FEAR OF MAN. CHAP. VIII. men that white people do not eat black folks; a joke having oftentimes greater influence in Africa than solemn assertions. Some of our young swells, on entering an African village, might experience a collapse of self-inflation at the sight of all the pretty girls fleeing from them as from hideous cannibals, or by witnessing, as we have done, the conversion of themselves into public hobgoblins, the mammas holding naughty children away from them, and saying "Be good, or I shall call the white man to bite you." The scent of man is excessively terrible to game of all kinds, much more so, probably, than the sight of him. A herd of antelopes, a hundred yards off, gazed at us as we moved along the winding path, and timidly stood their ground until half our line had passed, but darted off the instant they "got the wind," or caught the flavor of those who had gone by. The sport is all up with the hunter who gets to the windward of the African beast, as it can not stand even the distant aroma of the human race, so much dreaded by all wild animals. Is this the fear and the dread of man, which the Almighty said to Noah was to be upon every beast of the field? A lion may, while lying in wait for his prey, leap on a human being as he would on any other animal, save a rhinoceros or an elephant, that happened to pass; or a lioness, when she has cubs, might attack a man, who, passing "up the wind of her," had unconsciously, by his scent, alarmed her for the safety of her whelps; or buffaloes and other animals might rush at a line of travelers on apprehension of being surrounded by them, but neither beast nor snake will, as a general rule, turn on man except when wounded or by mistake. If gorillas, unwounded, advance to do battle with him, and beat their breasts in defiance, they are an exception to all wild beasts known to us. From the CHAP. VIII. DONKEYS' VOCAL POWERS. 201 way an elephant runs at the first glance of man, it is inferred that this huge brute, though really king of beasts, would run even from a child. Our two donkeys caused as much admiration as the three white men. Great was the astonishment when one of the donkeys began to bray. The timid jumped more than if a lion had roared beside them. All were startled, and stared in mute amazement at the harsh-voiced one, till the last broken note was uttered; then, on being assured that nothing in particular was meant, they looked at each other, and burst into a loud laugh at their common surprise. When one donkey stimulated the other to try his vocal powers, the interest felt by the startled visitors must have equaled that of the Londoners when they first crowded to see the famous hippopotamus. 202 SEAMS OF COAL. СНАР. ІХ. CHAPTER IX. Seams of Coal under Tette gray Sandstone.-Use of Coal unknown to the Natives.-Mbia kills a Hippopotamus.-Traps and Pitfalls.-Sagacity of Elephants at Pitfalls.-White Ants and their Galleries.-Black Soldier-ants lord it over the White Ants.-Language of Ants.-Biting Ants.-Rogue Monkey respected.-Native Salt-making.-The Mountains.-Chikwanitsela. -Afflictions of Beasts.-The human Buffalo.-Mpende.-Chilondo.-Monaheng murdered.-Animals which have not been hunted with Fire-arms.Pangola.-A rifle-loving Chief.-Undi and Fate of African Empires -Are Africans industrious?—Arrive at Zumbo, on the Loangwa, on the 26th of June. Results of no Government.-Murder of Mpangwe.-Sequasha. WE were now, when we crossed the boundary rivulet Nyamatarara, out of Chicova and among sandstone rocks, similar to those which prevail between Lupata and Kebrabasa. In the latter gorge, as already mentioned, igneous and syenitic masses have been acted on by some great fiery convulsion of nature; the strata are thrown into a huddled heap of confusion. The coal has of course disappeared in Kebrabasa, but is found again in Chicova. Tette gray sandstone is common about Sinjére, and, wherever it is seen with fossil wood upon it, coal lies beneath, and here, as at Chicova, some seams crop out on the banks of the Zambesi. Looking southward, the country is open plain and woodland, with detached hills and mountains in the distance: but the latter are too far off, the natives say, for them to know their names. The principal hills on our right, as we look up stream, are from six to twelve miles away, and occasionally they send down spurs to the river, with brooks flowing through their narrow valleys. The banks of the Zambesi show two welldefined terraces, the first, or lowest, being usually narrow, |