TREE HERITAGE 



were not relishing their task, and in truth this was really 

 more than they had bargained for. After an hour we 

 were making very poor headway and being able to make 

 myself understood I was commissioned by the party to 

 take charge and come to some agreement with them. 

 This I now did with the result that they soon dug their 

 oars in and bent their backs to cheerful song. All that 

 morning they rowed without stopping and in the after- 

 noon we went ashore and gave them twenty minutes' 

 rest after which we returned on board and continued 

 our journey downstream. When night came, camp beds 

 were set up and everybody retired under their mosquito 

 nets. Being responsible for our progress, for my part I 

 did not undress, but lay resting quietly enjoying the 

 starry night. Presently the oarsmen slackened off, and, 

 one by one, came to rest on their oars. They must have 

 been terribly tired, and it was obvious to me that it 

 would have been less than futile to have peremptorily 

 ordered them to continue. I waited for twenty minutes, 

 during which time I was able to recall the lilt of one of 

 the songs they had been singing that morning. Then I 

 got up, took one of the stroke oars myself and started 

 rowing while singing the song I had learned that morn- 

 ing. It went like this 



Fun-gu-la na-sana 

 Hi-fun-gti-la 

 Fun-gu-la na-sana 

 Hi-fun-gu-la 

 26^ 



