398 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



was a mistake. He took us out of the hills well 

 enough, and a good job that was, for we could 

 not see the length of our arms into the thick, rainy 

 blackness, and we had to go entirely by the 

 slants of the country. But once in the more 

 open, sloping country, with its innumerable 

 bushy or wooded ravines, he began to stray. 

 I felt this from the first ; but Eongoni insisted 

 strongly he was right, and in the rain and dark- 

 ness we had no way of proving him wrong. 

 In fact I had no reason for thinking him wrong ; 

 I only felt it. This sense of direction is apparently 

 a fifth wheel or extra adjustment some people 

 happen to possess. It has nothing to do with 

 acquired knowledge, as is very well proved by 

 the fact that in my 'own case it acts only as long 

 as I do not think about it. As soon as I begin 

 consciously to consider the matter I am likely 

 to go wrong. Thus many, many times I have 

 back-tracked in the dark over ground I had 

 traversed but once before, and have caught 

 myself turning out for bushes or trees I could 

 not see, but which my subconscious memory 

 recalled. This would happen only when I 

 would think of something besides the way 

 home. As soon as I took charge, I groped as 

 badly as the next man. It is a curious and 



