Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1879 edition. Excerpt: ... A Buffalo Hunter. 253 CHAPTER XII. A buffalo hunter--Singular native customs at royal marriages-- Difficulty of continuing our journey--A legion of rats--We encounter Blangellas--Peaceful arrangements--I shoot a hippopotamus--We proceed on our journey to the mountains of Messuate--Joy of the negroes on beholding the mountain of Lebombo. Arrival at Lourenco Marques. Towabds evening we arrived at a small kraal of only seven palhotas, inhabited by one family. This family consisted of a very old man, four women, and four children. The old man was extremely tall and thin, his skin shrunken and yellow. He must have been at least a hundred years old, yet he walked briskly though he stooped slightly. This kraal, although it was so small, looked like a general store for the hunters of some large city, judging from the immense quantity of horns which I saw both outside and inside the huts. From the roof of each palhota depended a circle of horns of the gazelle, fallow deer, and different varieties of wild goats, completed in front by two enormous buffalo horns. Soon after entering the kraal, this old man, who was sitting at the entrance of one of the huts, rose up and came to greet me. On my asking him whether any men besides himself lived in this kraal, he replied that he had a son and a grandson, but that they had both gone hunting. I was glad to learn this, as we should then have some one to guide us on the road. The old man then asked me whether I iutended to remain in this kraal for the night, and, on my replying in the affirmative, he bade one of the women go and get four palhotas ready for our use. I then asked him if he could give me any news concerning the war with Mahueoe. The information which I elicited from this old man was very...