CHAPTER X 



THE SEMLIKI VALLEY 



' Son of the old Moon mountains African ! 

 Stream of the Pyramid and Crocodile ! 

 ***** 

 'Tis ignorance that makes a barren waste 

 Of all beyond itself. Thou dost bedew 

 Green rushes like our rivers, and dost taste 

 The pleasant sunrise. Green isles hast thou too, 

 And to the sea as happily dost haste.' 



Keats 



It may be open to doubt whether travelling in 

 Africa has an altogether good effect on one's 

 character, but at all events you can hardly fail to 

 acquire the virtue of patience. Those happy people 

 (or are they not really unhappy .-*) whose lives are 

 determined by the legal or academical term, or by 

 the daily nine o'clock train, would suffer many a rude 

 shock in a country, where ' sasa ' (now) may possibly 

 mean to-day or to-morrow, where you are lucky 

 if the promises for ' kaishu ' (to-morrow) are fulfilled 

 within a month, and where the place that is said 

 to be ' mbali kidogo ' (a little way off) is anything 

 from twenty to a hundred miles distant. 



Our experience in getting away from Muhokya 

 was in no way exceptional. We had intended to 



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