BREAD NOT NECESSARY SOAP -MAKING PITFALLS. 237 



mention the circumstance to show that salt is not strictly 

 necessary to man's existence. Moreover, excepting once or 

 twice at the missionary table, we had not tasted bread for 

 months. I had so totally forgotten the use of it, that, after 

 our return to Barmen, on being entertained at Mr. Hahn's 

 house, I finished my meal without noticing the piece of bread 

 which was conspicuous enough alongside my plate. Our men 

 gTumbled a little at first at being deprived of bread, but they 

 also soon got accustomed to do without it, nor did the least 

 inconvenience arise from its absence. I have always heard 

 that the want of bread and vegetables is the greatest hard- 

 ship a man can experience. Be that as it may, the human 

 system — as the above facts demonstrate — is capable of recon- 

 ciling itself to nearly all conditions and circumstances. 



The men left in charge of the wagon were well, but poor 

 John Mortar, the cook, looked pale and thin. On asking 

 him the cause, he pointed to the fire where our food was 

 cooked, and, with something like an oath, exclaimed, " Sir, 

 4ook at that pot! I have been watching it these seven-and- 

 twenty days and nights, and, after all, I find that my labor 

 is thrown away !" 



Shortly after leaving Elephant Fountain, John, it seems, 

 had set about making soap, of which our supply was exhaust- 

 ed. Through some mistake, however, he used unslaked lime 

 instead of the alkali obtained in the country from the ash of 

 the native soap-bush. This at once accounted for his failure 

 in regard to the article itself, and his own emaciated appear- 

 ance. 



Game, as has been said, was very abundant near to Ele- 

 phant Fountain, and, by means of spacious pitfalls, great 

 numbers of wild animals were almost nightly captured. The 

 whole ground in the neighborhood of Zwart Nosop, which 

 flowed past the place, was literally a succession of pitfalls, 

 and they were so cleverly arranged and well concealed that 

 it required the utmost caution in walking about. Even peo- 



