[The Discovery of the Source of the Nile by John Hanning Speke]@TWC D-Link book
The Discovery of the Source of the Nile

CHAPTER XIX
12/22

The elephant is killed with a new kind of spear, with a double-edged blade a yard long, and a handle which, weighted in any way most easy, is pear-shaped.
With these instruments in their hands, some men climb into trees and wait for the herd to pass, whilst others drive them under.

The hippopotami, however, are not hunted, but snared with lunda, the common tripping-trap with spike-drop, which is placed in the runs of this animal, described by every South African traveller, and generally known as far as the Hametic language is spread.

The Karuma Falls, if such they may be called, are a mere sluice or rush of water between high syenitic stones, falling in a long slope down a ten-feet drop.

There are others of minor importance, and one within ear-sound, down the river, said to be very grand.
The name given to the Karuma Falls arose from the absurd belief that Karuma, the agent or familiar of a certain great spirit, placed the stones that break the waters in the river, and, for so doing, was applauded by his master, who, to reward his services by an appropriate distinction, allowed the stones to be called Karuma.

Near this is a tree which contains a spirit whose attributes for gratifying the powers and pleasures of either men or women who summon its influence in the form appropriate to each, appear to be almost identical with that of Mahadeo's Ligna in India.
20th .-- We halted for the men to collect and lay in a store of food for the passage of the Kidi wilderness.


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