342

COUNTRY AND GAME.

minded of Scotia's hills and dales. As it was a rainy season, every thing was fresh; the clumps of trees that studded the plains being covered with rich and living verdure. But these rocks and vales, and picturesque scenes, were often vocal with the lion's roar. It was a country once covered with a dense population. On the sides of the hills and Kashan mountains were towns in ruins, where thousands once made the country alive, amidst fruitful vales now covered with luxuriant grass, inhabited by game. The extirpating invasions of the Mantatees and Matabele had left to beasts of prey the undisputed right of these lovely woodland glens. The lion, which had revelled in human flesh, as if conscious that there was none to oppose, roamed at large, a terror to the traveller, who often heard with dismay his nightly roaring echoed back by the surrounding hills. We were mercifully preserved during the nights, though our slumbers were often interrupted by his fearful howlings. We had frequently to take our guns and precede the wagon, as the oxen sometimes took fright at the sudden rush of a rhinoceros or buffalo from a thicket. More than one instance occurred when, a rhinoceros being aroused from his slumbers by the crack of the whips, the oxen would scamper off like race-horses, when destruction of gear, and some part of the wagon, was the result. As there was no road, we were frequently under the necessity of taking very circuitous routs to find a passage through deep ravines; and we were often obliged to employ picks, spades, and hatchets, to clear our way. When we

bivouacked for the night, a plain was generally selected that we might be the better able to defend ourselves; and when firewood was plentiful, we made a number of fires at a distance around the wagon. But when it rained, our situation was pitiful indeed; and we only wished it to rain so hard that the lion might not like to leave his lair.

Having travelled one hundred miles, five days after leaving Mosega we came to the first cattle outposts of the Matabele, when we halted by a fine rivulet. My attention was arrested by a beautiful and gigantic tree, standing in a defile leading into an extensive and woody ravine, between a high range of mountains. Seeing some individuals employed on the ground under its shade, and the conical points of what looked like houses in miniature, protruding through its evergreen foliage, I proceeded thither, and found that the tree was inhabited by several families of Bakones, the aborigines of the country. I ascended by the notched trunk, and found, to my amazement, no less than seventeen

THE INHABITED TREE.

343

of these aërial abodes, and three others unfinished. On reaching the topmost hut, about thirty feet from the ground, I entered, and sat down. Its only furniture was the hay which covered the floor, a spear, a spoon, and a bowl full of locusts. Not having eaten any thing that day, and from the novelty of my situation, not wishing to return imme diately to the wagons, I asked a woman who sat at the door with a babe at her breast, permission to eat. This she granted with pleasure, and soon brought me more in a powdered state. Several more females came from the neighbouring roosts, stepping from branch to branch, to see the stranger, who was to them as great a curiosity as the tree was to him. I then visited the different abodes, which were on several principal branches. The structure of these houses was very simple. An oblong scaffold, about seven feet wide, is formed of straight sticks. On one end of this platform a small cone is formed, also of straight sticks, and thatched with grass. A person can nearly stand upright in it; the diameter of the floor is about six feet. The house stands on the end of the oblong, so as to leave a little square space before the door. On the day previous I had passed several villages, some containing forty houses, all built on poles about seven or eight feet from the ground, in the form of a circle; the ascent and descent is by a knotty branch of a tree placed in front of the house. In the centre of the circle there is always a heap of the bones of game they have killed. Such were the domiciles of the impoverished thousands of the aborigines of the country, who, having been scattered and peeled by Moselekatse, had neither herd nor stall, but subsisted on locusts, roots, and the chase. They adopted this mode of architecture to escape the lions which abounded in the country. During the day the families descended to the shade beneath to dress their daily food. When the inhabitants increased, they supported the augmented weight on the branches, by upright sticks, but when lightened of their load, they removed these for firewood.

As a proof of the necessity of such an expedient as above described, I may add, that during the day, having shot a rhinoceros, we had reserved the hump of the animal to roast during the night, a large ant-hill was selected for the purpose, and being prepared by excavation and fire, this tit-bit was deposited. During the night, a couple of lions attracted by the roast, drew near, and though it was beyond gun-shot, we could hear them distinctly, as if holding council to wait till the fire went out, to obtain for theinselves our anticipated

344

AN URGENT APPEAL.

breakfast. As the fire appeared to have gone out altogether, we had given up hope till morning light showed us that the lions had been in earnest, but the heat of the smouldering ant-hill had effectually guarded our steak.

After my return to the wagons, some Matabele warriors approached, who, on seeing 'Umbate and his companion, and their attendants, bowed at a distance, until he beckoned them to draw near, when they addressed the Tunas in the most servile language, which proved that we had not been mistaken in regarding them as men of distinction. Having thus arrived at the out-posts of Moselekatee's dominions, I again referred to my engagement, and proposed returning home, having now brought them thus far, and, according to the phraseology of the country, placed them among, or behind the shields of their nation. The two chief men arose, and after looking for a while on the ground as if in deep thought, 'Umbate, laying his right hand on my shoulder, and the left on his breast, addressed me in the following language: "Father, you have been our guardian. We are yours. You love us, and will you leave us?" and pointing to the blue mountains on the distant horizon, "Yonder," he added, "dwells the great Moselekatse, and how shall we approach his presence, if you are not with us? If you love us still, save us, for when we shall have told our news, he will ask why our conduct gave you pain to cause your return; and before the sun descend on the day we see his face, we shall be ordered out for execution, because you are not. Look at me and my companion, and tell us if you can, that you will not go, for we had better die here than in the sight of our people." I reasoned, but they were silent; their eyes, however, spoke a language I could not resist. "Are you afraid?" said

one; to which I replied, "No." Then said 'Umbate, "It remains with you to save our lives, and our wives and children from sorrow." I now found myself in a perplexing position, these noble suppliants standing before me, 'Umbate, whose intelligent countenance beamed with benevolence, while his masculine companion, another Mars, displayed a sympathy of feeling not to be expected in the man of war, who could count his many tens of slain warriors which had adorned his head with the ring or badge of victory and honour. My own attendants, whom I had the day before been commending for their intrepidity, were looking on the transaction as if the destinies of an empire were involved; and heard, not without strong emotion, my consent to accompany the strangers to their king.