bserved a branch bearing the marks of the
male having often sat upon it when feeding his mate, and the excreta had
been expelled a full yard from the orifice, and often proved a means of
discovering the retreat.

The honey-guides were very assiduous in their friendly offices, and
enabled my men to get a large quantity of honey. But, though bees
abound, the wax of these parts forms no article of trade. In Londa it
may be said to be fully cared for, as you find hives placed upon trees
in the most lonesome forests. We often met strings of carriers laden
with large blocks of this substance, each 80 or 100 lbs. in weight, and
pieces were offered to us for sale at every village; but here we never
saw a single artificial hive. The bees were always found in the natural
cavities of mopane-trees. It is probable that the good market for
wax afforded to Angola by the churches of Brazil led to the gradual
development of that branch of commerce there. I saw even on the banks
of the Quango as much as sixpence paid for a pound. In many parts of
the Batoka country bees exist in vast numbers, and the tribute due to
Sekeletu is often paid in large jars of honey; but, having no market nor
use for the wax, it is thrown away. This was the case also with ivory at
the Lake Ngami, at the period of its discovery. The reports brought by
my other party from Loanda of the value of wax had induced some of my
present companions to bring small quantities of it to Tete, but, not
knowing the proper mode of preparing it, it was so dark colored that no
one would purchase it; I afterward saw a little at Kilimane which had
been procured from the natives somewhere in this region.

Though we are now approaching the Portuguese settlement, the country is
still full of large game. My men killed six buffalo calves out of a herd
we met. The abundance of these animals, and also of antelopes, shows the
insufficiency of the bow and arrow to lessen their numbers. There are
also a great many lions and hyaenas, and there is no check upon the
increase of the former, for the people, believing that the souls of
their chiefs enter into them, never attempt to kill them; they even
believe that a chief may metamorphose himself into a lion, kill any one
he chooses, and then return to the human form; therefore, when they
see one, they commence clapping their hands, which is the usual mode
of salutation here. The consequence is, that lions and hyaenas are
so abundant that we see