XII.] A GENERAL STAMPEDE. 159 



donkey noV remaining was a half-bred one, which also showed January, 

 symptoms of being beaten by starvation. ^^'^*- 



My goat had become extraordinarily tame, and would persist 

 in sleeping on the foot of my bed. If she were tied up else- 

 where, she disturbed the camp by continual bleating until al- 

 lowed to come back to me. 



The men managed to tind roots and mushrooms for them- 

 selves, and I believe a certain amount of corn and flour ; but I 

 did not get any thing until the evening of the third day. 



On the 31st of January we gladly left this inhospitable 

 place, and made our way down a steep descent and along a nar- 

 row valley, througli which there ran a winding stream, with nu- 

 merous fenced-in patches of cultivation on each side. The vil- 

 lages were perched among the rocks, and the inhabitants refused 

 to have any intercourse with us. 



The cause of this unfriendly behavior was that they mistrust- 

 ed our honesty of purpose, having suffered much from the slave- 

 trade by being preyed upon by neighboring tribes, who sell 

 them to the Arabs. This they are enabled to do in consequence 

 of there being no friendship among the villages, each little 

 hamlet of perhaps only half a dozen families asserting its inde- 

 pendence. 



Emerging from this valley, we passed through an open for- 

 est along the slope of a hill. Suddenly I found m3'self most un- 

 ceremoniously dropped by my carriers, who bolted right away, 

 and immediately afterward a general stampede took place all 

 along the line, the men, in their panic, throwing down guns, 

 loads, and every thing, while scampering off to ensconce them- 

 selves behind the nearest trees. 



" What is it ? thieves, wild beasts, or what ? Bring me my 

 gun !" shouted I, as I lay on my side, jammed in the chair by 

 the pole to which it was slung, and perfectly unable to move. 

 The only answer I received was a personal explanation from 

 the cause of all this terror — a solitary buffalo — which came 

 charging along with head down. A black, vicious "varmint" 

 he looked, as he passed within twenty yards of me ; but, luckily, 

 he did not see me, or in all probability he would have sent me 

 flying into the air, chair and all. 



That evening we camped in a wide ravine in the hill-side. 



