The natives of British Central Africa

								

Central Africa.
We must say a few words about the fauna of British Central Africa,
not only because it is interesting in itself, but because it plays an
important part in the life and thought of the people. Elephants are less
numerous than they were forty years ago, when herds of them haunted the
marsh to which they have given their name; but they are still frequently
seen between Chikala and Mangoche, north-east of Lake Chilwa, and since
they have been protected by Government, have even been returning to the
banks of the Shiré. In 1877 the late Consul Elton saw a herd of over
three hundred near the north end of Lake Nyasa.
The hippopotamus is found in the Shiré and Lake Nyasa, and indeed almost
in any stream or lake where the water is deep enough to cover him. The
rhinoceros is known, but not very common. There are many Cape buffaloes
in the plains and marshes of the Shiré, and the solitary bulls, driven
out of the herd on account of bad temper or other defects, are sometimes
extremely savage. Such an animal, in 1894, charged out of the long
grass on a party of carriers, near Chiromo, and knocked down, gored and
trampled on, one man, who was rescued from him with difficulty. This
man, a Tonga named Kajawa, when treated at Blantyre, was found to have
seventeen wounds about him, but ultimately recovered.
Of other large animals, we have already mentioned the zebra; and the
eland, though not very common, is also met with. There are several
kinds of smaller antelopes, and, in the mountains, the beautiful little
creature called the klipspringer, or, by the natives, the gwapi, which
is something like a chamois.
Of monkeys, there are baboons, which go about in troops and plunder the
growing crops, when they get a chance, and several smaller kinds.
The curious ant-eater called Manis or ‘Pangolin,’ and by the natives
nkaka, is three or four feet long, shaped like a lizard and covered
with lozenge-shaped brown scales, more like those on a fir-cone (the
long, thin-scaled cones of the Norway spruce) than anything else I can
think of. With his powerful claws he digs his way into the hills of the
white ants on which he feeds, catching them on his sticky tongue, as
he has no teeth wherewith to eat them. He is a slow-moving, nocturnal
creature, and seldom seen, unless dug out of his burrow.
Another underground creature who ventures out by night is the porcupine,
whose black and white quills are sometimes picked up in the bush
and brought for sale by natives. It is fond of pumpkins and other
vegetables, and often comes to feed on the crops at night.
Of beasts of prey we have the lion, the leopard, several smaller kinds
of cats, the spotted hyena (disgusting in habits and contemptible in
character, but interesting from his place in native folk-lore), jackals,
and wild dogs (mimbulu_), which hunt in packs like wolves.