with a dash of the pointer, probably from St. Helena: the people
will pay as much as ten dollars for a good dog. They are never
used in hunting apes, as they start the game; on this occasion
they nearly ran down a small antelope.

The path led through a new clearing; a field of fern and some
patches of grass breaking the forest, which, almost clear of
thicket and undergrowth, was a charming place for deer. The soil,
thin sand overlying humus, suggested rich crops of ground-nuts;
its surface was everywhere cut by nullahs, now dry, and by
brooks, running crystal streams; these, when deep, are crossed by
tree-trunks, the Brazilian "pingela." After twenty minutes or so
we left the "picada" (foot-path) and struck into a thin bush,
till we had walked about a mile.

"Look him house, Nchigo house!" said Hotaloya, standing under a
tall tree.

I saw to my surprise two heaps of dry sticks, which a schoolboy
might have taken for birds' nests; the rude beds, boughs, torn
off from the tree, not gathered, were built in forks, one ten and
the other twenty feet above ground, and both were canopied by the
tufted tops. Every hunter consulted upon the subject ridiculed
the branchy roof tied with vines, and declared that the Nchigo's
industry is confined to a place for sitting, not for shelter;
that he fashions no other dwelling; that a couple generally
occupies the same or some neighbouring tree, each sitting upon
its own nest; that the Nchigo is not a "hermit" nor a rare, nor
even a very timid animal; that it dwells, as I saw, near
villages, and that its cry, "Aoo! Aoo! Aoo!" is often heard by