104 THROUGH GASA LAND. 



lain upon my bed and listened to it, when the distant 

 song of twenty or thirty followers floated to my ears 

 in rising and falling cadences of mournful music. 



As the sigh of the cool night breezes wafted the 

 sounds over the surrounding landscape, 1 could dis- 

 tinguish the voices, some deep and guttural, others 

 shrill and youthful, and when the wind was hushed 

 the sounds became indistinct, suddenly to burst 

 forth again in its wild harmony, like the rising and 

 falling intonations of an ^Eolian harp. 



That night I did not attempt to turn in, for I 

 knew full well that 1 could not sleep, so sat over the 

 fire smoking more than was good for me, still when 

 the first lines of light appeared in the eastern 

 heavens, I was taken by surprise that daylight was 

 so close at hand. Some of the natives were still 

 eating and others still singing, when suddenly there 

 was an outcry among them, and I jumped from my 

 seat, and hurried to know the cause. I would have 

 given more than a trifle to have had my rifle in my 

 hands, for not fifteen paces from me passed a lioness 

 — doubtless the lady I have alluded to before — at a 

 slow measured walk, with a joint of meat close 

 on 50 lbs. weight in her mouth. Although the 

 fence of our laar was between us, she distinctly saw 

 me, which neither disconcerted her movements nor 

 hurried them. The brute certainly evinced dis- 

 pleasure at my proximity, but it was only denoted 

 by the drawing up of her lips, and a fierce fixed 



