experience, that to beat out the curtains thoroughly before entering
them, so that not one of these pests can possibly be harboured within, is
the only safeguard against such severe trials to one's tranquillity and
temper.

A few miles above Mboma we came again to the village (16 degrees 44
minutes 30 seconds S.) of the chief Tingane, the beat of whose war-drums
can speedily muster some hundreds of armed men. The bows and poisoned
arrows here are of superior workmanship to those below. Mariano's slave-
hunting parties stood in great awe of these barbed arrows, and long kept
aloof from Tingane's villages. His people were friendly enough with us
now, and covered the banks with a variety of articles for sale. The
majestic mountain, Chipirone, to which we have given the name of Mount
Clarendon, now looms in sight, and further to the N.W. the southern end
of the grand Milanje range rises in the form of an unfinished sphinx
looking down on Lake Shirwa. The Ruo (16 degrees 31 minutes 0 seconds
S.) is said to have its source in the Milanje mountains, and flows to the
S.W., to join the Shire some distance above Tingane's. A short way
beyond the Ruo lies the Elephant marsh, or Nyanja Mukulu, which is
frequented by vast herds of these animals. We believe that we counted
eight hundred elephants in sight at once. In the choice of such a strong
hold, they have shown their usual sagacity, for no hunter can get near
them through the swamps. They now keep far from the steamer; but, when
she first came up, we steamed into the midst of a herd, and some were
shot from the ship's deck. A single lesson was sufficient to teach them
that the steamer was a thing to be avoided; and at the first glimpse they
are now off two or three miles to the midst of the marsh, which is
furrowed in every direction by wandering branches of the Shire. A fine
young elephant was here caught alive, as he was climbing up the bank to
follow his retreating dam. When laid hold of, he screamed with so much
energy that, to escape a visit from the enraged mother, we steamed off,
and dragged him through the water by the proboscis. As the men were
holding his trunk over the gunwale, Monga, a brave Makololo
elephant-hunter, rushed aft, and drew his knife across it in a sort of
frenzy peculiar to the chase. The wound was skilfully sewn up, and the
young animal soon became quite tame, but, unfortunately the breathing
prevented the cut from healing, and he died i