A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864Livingstone, David
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A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries: And of the Discovery of Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa, 1858-1864
Livingstone, David
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, Central -- Discovery and exploration
We had the elephant's fore-foot cooked for ourselves, in native fashion.
A large hole was dug in the ground, in which a fire was made; and, when
the inside was thoroughly heated, the entire foot was placed in it, and
covered over with the hot ashes and soil; another fire was made above the
whole, and kept burning all night. We had the foot thus cooked for
breakfast next morning, and found it delicious. It is a whitish mass,
slightly gelatinous, and sweet, like marrow. A long march, to prevent
biliousness, is a wise precaution after a meal of elephant's foot.
Elephant's trunk and tongue are also good, and, after long simmering,
much resemble the hump of a buffalo and the tongue of an ox; but all the
other meat is tough, and, from its peculiar flavour, only to be eaten by
a hungry man. The quantities of meat our men devour is quite astounding.
They boil as much as their pots will hold, and eat till it becomes
physically impossible for them to stow away any more. An uproarious
dance follows, accompanied with stentorian song; and as soon as they have
shaken their first course down, and washed off the sweat and dust of the
after performance, they go to work to roast more: a short snatch of sleep
succeeds, and they are up and at it again; all night long it is boil and
eat, roast and devour, with a few brief interludes of sleep. Like other
carnivora, these men can endure hunger for a much longer period than the
mere porridge-eating tribes. Our men can cook meat as well as any
reasonable traveller could desire; and, boiled in earthen pots, like
Indian chatties, it tastes much better than when cooked in iron ones.
CHAPTER V.
Magnificent scenery--Method of marching--Hippopotamus killed--Lions and
buffalo--Sequasha the ivory-trader.
Sandia gave us two guides; and on the 4th of June we left the Elephant
valley, taking a westerly course; and, after crossing a few ridges,
entered the Chingerere or Paguruguru valley, through which, in the rainy
season, runs the streamlet Pajodze. The mountains on our left, between
us and the Zambesi, our guides told us have the same name as the valley,
but that at the confluence of the Pajodze is called Morumbwa. We struck
the river at less than half a mile to the north of the cataract Morumbwa.
On climbing up the base of this mountain at Pajodze, we found that we
were distant only the diameter of the mountain from the cataract. In
measuring the cataract we formerly stood on its southern flank; now we
were perched on its northern flank, and at once recognized the
onion-shaped mountain, here called Zakavuma, whose smooth convex surface
overlooks the broken water. Its bearing by compass was l80 degrees from
the spot to which we had climbed, and 700 or 800 yards distant. We now,
from this standing-point, therefore, completed our inspection of all
Kebrabasa, and saw what, as a whole, was never before seen by Europeans
so far as any records show.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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