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 more, make
their home in a single tree; and do so to secure themselves against
savage beasts, and sometimes equally savage men. That they build their
houses upon platforms, which they erect upon the horizontal branches;
and that they ascend by means of ladders, which are drawn up after them
at night when they go to rest.

All this Von Bloom had heard, and all of it is positively true. Of
course the reflection occurred to h