he
governor-general of Chopi, to request we would not go down the river in
boats to-morrow, lest the Chopi ferrymen at the falls should take fright
at our strange appearance, paddle precipitately across the river, hide
their boats, and be seen no more.

We started, leaving all the traps and men to follow, and made this place
in a stride, as a whisper warned me that Kamrasi's officers, who are as
thick as thieves about here, had made up their minds to keep us each one
day at his abode, and show us "hospitality." Such was the case, for
they all tried their powers of persuasion, which failing, they took the
alternative of making my men all drunk, and sending to camp sundry pots
of pombe. The ground on the line of march was highly cultivated, and
intersected by a deep ravine of running water, whose sundry branches
made the surface very irregular. The sand-paper tree, whose leaves
resemble a cat's tongue in roughness, and which is used in Uganda for
polishing their clubs and spear-handles, was conspicuous; but at the
end of the journey only was there anything of much interest to be
seen. There suddenly, in a deep ravine one hundred yards below us, the
formerly placid river, up which vessels of moderate size might steam two
or three abreast, was now changed into a turbulent torrent. Beyond lay
the land of Kidi, a forest of mimosa trees, rising gently away from the
water in soft clouds of green. This, the governor of the place, Kija,
described as a sporting-field, where elephants, hippopotami, and buffalo
are hunted by the occupants of both sides of the river. The elephant is
killed with a new kind of spear, with a double-edged blade a yard long,
and a handle which, weighted in any way most easy, is pear-shaped.

With these instruments in their hands, some men climb into trees
and wait for the herd to pass, whilst others drive them under. The
hippopotami, however, are not hunted, but snared with lunda, the common
tripping-trap with spike-drop, which is placed in the runs of this
animal, described by every South African traveller, and generally known
as far as the Hametic language is spread. The Karuma Falls, if such they
may be called, are a mere sluice or rush of water between high syenitic
stones, falling in a long slope down a ten-feet drop. There are others
of minor importance, and one within ear-sound, down the river, said to
be very grand.

The name given to the Karuma Falls arose from the absurd belief that
Karuma, t