

LEADING SPIRITS OF MISCHIEF. 77 



questions ; the moon was totally obscured, and 

 thorough blackness surrounded us ; such darkness, 

 so dense in its intensity, that I almost thought that 

 I could feel its pressure. But this was only momen- 

 tary. Lightning, in a dozen forked tongues, eye- 

 blinding in its dazzling brilliancy, descended to 

 earth, revealing the course that each flash had 

 taken, and the numerous acute angles and deviations 

 that it had made in its course. 



There was a tope of acacia near us, and we made 

 for it, when my voice, rather a strong one, and, 

 therefore, on such occasions useful, shouted out the 

 requisite orders for making all snug ere the 

 promised storm should break upon us. 



My people knew their work, and zealously 

 performed it. In a few minutes the cattle were all 

 released from their yokes ; the sail, an immense 

 sheet of greased canvas, was passed over each 

 waggon and made fast by rheims to the spokes and 

 felloes of the wheels, and large fires were lighted 

 before and behind our camping-place. No need 

 for tying up the bullocks that night ; they were too 

 tired to wander, and we scarcely expected that 

 we had advanced far enough into the bowels of 

 the land for the king of beasts to pay us a visit 

 and drive them off. During the flashes of lightning 

 you could see that half of the oxen had already 

 lain down, and among their number were Ackerman 

 and Gilbert, the leading spirits when mischief was 



