The African sketch-book . me, rather as a memory than something new. Andat first the forest had for me a wondrous charm, but Isoon began to weary of it: nothing is more depressingthan to pass many days in these gloomy halls of verdure,with walls and ceilings of a sombre green, with neveran horizon, and but seldom a glimpse of the blue sky ;without sound or motion, save the rustling of a squirrelor a lizard, the chirp of a monkey, or the gratingvoice of the cicada. My hopes of sport were quickly dis- Book Ij THE FOREST 39 sipated, for in the recesses of the virgin forest, as in thedark depths o
The African sketch-book . me, rather as a memory than something new. Andat first the forest had for me a wondrous charm, but Isoon began to weary of it: nothing is more depressingthan to pass many days in these gloomy halls of verdure,with walls and ceilings of a sombre green, with neveran horizon, and but seldom a glimpse of the blue sky ;without sound or motion, save the rustling of a squirrelor a lizard, the chirp of a monkey, or the gratingvoice of the cicada. My hopes of sport were quickly dis- Book Ij THE FOREST 39 sipated, for in the recesses of the virgin forest, as in thedark depths of the ocean, animal life is rare. Water isplentiful, fruits abound, yet all is silent and are few flocks or herds; antelopes and buffaloesare usually found singly or in pairs ; the elephants goin twos and threes. The grazing animals being few innumber, beasts of prey are also scarce. There are nolions ; the leopard is the monarch of the forest, and issaid to sleep in a hollow tree through the season of the. heavy rains. It appears strange that game should befound in such enormous quantities on the witheredplains of Southern Africa, and yet be so scanty in aland where vegetable life is luxuriant and never in the forest there is little pasture, and perhapsthe moist, miasmatic, dimly-lighted air is injurious toquadrupeds as well as men. But whatever the cause 40 THE FOREST [Book I may be, the fact is universal, and has been observed,not only in Equatorial Africa, but also in When I returned to the village at eleven oclock,the old men were seated on logs, smooth and glassyfrom use, in a large open shed—a roof supported onpoles—in the centre of the village. Public buildingsin savage Africa are always thus constructed, for thesake of light and air, and from these bare poles thecolumn is descended. The Palaver-House serves asthe village club, where ladies are not permitted to in-trude ; it is also employed on great occasions as the hallof justice,
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