14Th.  We left Nyampungo this morning.  The path wound up the Molinge, another sand-river which flows into the Nake.  When we got clear of the tangled jungle which covers the banks of these rivulets, we entered the Mopane country, where we could walk with comfort.  When we had gone on a few hours, my men espied an elephant, and were soon in full pursuit.  They were in want of meat, having tasted nothing but grain for several days.  The desire for animal food made them all eager to slay him, and, though an old bull, he was soon killed.  The people of Nyampungo had never seen such desperadoes before.  One rushed up and hamstrung the beast, while still standing, by a blow with an axe.  Some Banyai elephant-hunters happened to be present when my men were fighting with him.  One of them took out his snuff-box, and poured out all its contents at the root of a tree as an offering to the Barimo for success.  As soon as the animal fell, the whole of my party engaged in a wild, savage dance round the body, which quite frightened the Banyai, and he who made the offering said to me, “I see you are traveling with people who don’t know how to pray:  I therefore offered the only thing I had in their 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 admired the devout belief they all possessed in the actual existence 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.

As 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 this district to watch over his property, the owner himself living near the Zambesi.  The side upon which the elephant fell had a short, broken tusk; the upper one, which was ours, was large and thick.  The Banyai remarked on our good luck.  The men sent to give notice came back late in the afternoon 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 thanked 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 carcass 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 laughing because we could not take the whole, and that they would have plenty to eat as well as we.