FROM TALI TO TSEKOU 



cessation of the track two days ahead, where a hundred men would 

 not be able to clear it. Both absence and destruction of means 

 of communication were attributable to the terror inspired by the 

 everlasting Loutses, the left bank and safety being usually pre- 

 ferred to this one. 



While in camp the villagers constantly came begging for 

 remedies, chiefly for eye troubles ; and I made a large quantity of 

 boric acid. Amonaf our visitors were two with a kind of leather 

 cuirass protecting the back only, which suggested to us that that 

 was the part they most often presented to their foes ; but they 

 averred that were it in front they could not level their cross- 

 bows on its slippery surface. One of them also possessed some 

 balls which he would not part with at any price ; they were a 

 precious remedy against all ills, made from the gall of bears. 

 Questioned as to the treatment the Loutses accorded to their 

 prisoners, these warriors said they could be ransomed for from 

 nine to fifteen oxen a man ; if unredeemed, they w^ere put to hard 

 labour as slaves. The women were made bondwomen of, rarely 

 married. The slaves might intermarry, and their children would 

 be free ; moreover, any captured children were brought up as 

 their own in liberty. The accounts, therefore, of the ferocity of 

 these Loutses would seem to be exaggerated. 



To show the destitution of these villagers, I saw one going 

 round among our mules with a sack, sweeping up the grains of 

 paddy, mixed with twigs, that had dropped from their nose-bags. 



Another short stage, and on the 7th (August) a dead stop 

 with an abrupt end to the path. By dint of incessant and very 

 severe toil, our mafous, aided by hired natives clearing brushwood, 

 cutting down and filling up, pushed and pulled the animals 

 throucjh ; so that at nightfall we were over the worst of it, and 



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