hid, and
as soon as he believed his master was out of danger, he set off with one
of the horses to bring them into camp. The elephant itself had long
since disappeared, its skeleton alone whitened the prairie; but the
tusks were safe, and were safely bestowed in the waggon, in part payment
of our debt.

One morning our oxen, which were feeding near, suddenly started off in
every direction, leaping, twisting, and turning about, and cutting the
most ridiculous capers. They looked as if they had been seized with
Saint-Vitus's-dance. On running towards them I discovered that a large
flock of birds were clinging to their backs--three or four on each
animal. Having my gun in my hand, I shot one, when I found that it was
the same bird which I had seen on the back of the rhinoceros. Senhor
Silva, who arrived laughing heartily at the commotion among our animals,
told me that the bird is called the _Buphaga Africana_. Its object in
thus taking possession of the backs of the cattle is for the purpose of
feeding on the ticks with which they are covered. They have
particularly long claws and elastic tails, which enable them thus to
cling to the hide, and to search every part of the beast, in spite of
its efforts to get rid of them. When animals are accustomed to these
birds they appear rather grateful for the visitation; but Mr Fraser's
oxen had apparently never experienced a similar visitation, and were
therefore considerably astonished at being thus unceremoniously
assailed. By degrees, however, when they found that they could not
throw them off, and that nothing very terrible happened, the oxen
remained quiet, and were probably much more comfortable from being
delivered from their parasitic pests.

The necessity of supplying our camp with meat compelled us frequently to
go out shooting. We greatly missed, on these occasions, Stanley's
unerring rifle. Our party generally consisted of Senhor Silva, Timbo,
and myself; but sometimes Mr Fraser took Senhor Silva's place; and he
was, I must say, the best shot of the party. We had been unsuccessful,
however, on several occasions, and though there was no famine in the
camp, we had very little meat fit to eat; while our black attendants
were beginning to grumble greatly at being placed on short commons.
This made us more than ever anxious to get some game. We had scoured
the country towards the south for some distance, and falling in with no
animals, we were induced to proce