civility so common among them the chief ordered a mat to be spread for us
under a shed, and then showed us the weapon with which they kill the
hippopotamus; it is a short iron harpoon inserted in the end of a long
pole, but being intended to unship, it is made fast to a strong cord of
milola, or hibiscus, bark, which is wound closely round the entire length
of the shaft, and secured at its opposite end. Two men in a swift canoe
steal quietly down on the sleeping animal. The bowman dashes the harpoon
into the unconscious victim, while the quick steersman sweeps the light
craft back with his broad paddle; the force of the blow separates the
harpoon from its corded handle, which, appearing on the surface,
sometimes with an inflated bladder attached, guides the hunters to where
the wounded beast hides below until they despatch it.

These hippopotamus hunters form a separate people, called Akombwi, or
Mapodzo, and rarely--the women it is said never--intermarry with any
other tribe. The reason for their keeping aloof from certain of the
natives on the Zambesi is obvious enough, some having as great an
abhorrence of hippopotamus meat as Mahomedans have of swine's flesh. Our
pilot, Scissors, was one of this class; he would not even cook his food
in a pot which had contained hippopotamus meat, preferring to go hungry
till he could find another; and yet he traded eagerly in the animal's
tusks, and ate with great relish the flesh of the foul-feeding marabout.
These hunters go out frequently on long expeditions, taking in their
canoes their wives and children, cooking-pots, and sleeping-mats. When
they reach a good game district, they erect temporary huts on the bank,
and there dry the meat they have killed. They are rather a
comely-looking race, with very black smooth skins, and never disfigure
themselves with the frightful ornaments of some of the other tribes. The
chief declined to sell a harpoon, because they could not now get the
milola bark from the coast on account of Mariano's war. He expressed