putting up a house. That would necessarily be a work of time. There
was no good building material convenient. A stone house would cost a
great deal of labour--as the stones would have to be carried nearly a
mile, and in their hands too. That would never do, as Von Bloom might
only remain a short while at that place. He might not find many
elephants there, and of course would be under the necessity of going
elsewhere.

Why not build a log-house? you will say. That would not be so much of a
job, as part of the country was well wooded, and they had an axe.

True, part of the country was wooded, but in a particular manner. With
the exception of the nwana-trees, that stood at long distances apart--
and regularly, as if they had been planted--there was nothing that
deserved the name of timber. All the rest was mere "bush,"--a thorny
jungle of mimosas, euphorbias, arborescent aloes, strelitzias, and the
horrid zamia plants, beautiful enough to the eye, but of no utility
whatever in the building of a house. The nwanas, of course, were too
large for house-logs. To have felled one of them would have been a task
equal almost to the building of a house; and to have made planks of them
would have required a steam saw-mill. A log-house was not to be thought
of either.

Now a frail structure of poles and thatch would not have given
sufficient security. An angry rhinoceros, or elephant, would level such
a house to the ground in a few moments.

Suppose, too, that there were _man-eaters_ in the neighbourhood.
Swartboy believed that there were, and that that region was notorious
for them. As it was not far from Swartboy's native country, Von Bloom,
who had reason to believe what the Bushman told him, was inclined to
credit this. What protection would a frail house afford against the
_man-eater_? Not much, indeed.

Von Bloom was puzzled and perplexed. He could not commence his hunting
excursions until this question was settled. Some place must be
prepared, where the children would be safe during his absence.

While revolving the subject in his mind, he happened to cast his eyes
upward among the branches of the nwana-tree. All at once his attention
became fixed upon those huge limbs, for they had awakened within him a
strange memory. He remembered having heard that, in some parts of the
country, and perhaps not very far from where he then was, the natives
_live in trees_. That sometimes a whole tribe, of fifty or m