THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 193 



not been with her, I started up. She lay upon her bed, pale as 

 marble, and with that calm serenity that the features assume 

 when the cares of life no longer act upon the mind, and the body 

 rests in death. The dreadful thought bowed me down ; but as I 

 gazed upon her in fear, her chest gently heaved, not with the 

 convulsive throbs of fever, but naturally. She was asleep ; and 

 when at a sudden noise she opened her eyes, they were culm and 

 clear. She was saved ! When not a ray of hope remained, God 

 alone knows what helped us. The gratitude of that moment I 

 will not attempt to describe." 



They now remained in camp two days, to afford Mrs. Baker 

 rest, but she gained very slowly in strength, having neither med- 

 icine nor any of the delicacies so necessary to a sick person. It 

 was finally decided to proceed on the journey, and carry her in a 

 litter, which was so arranged as to make her as comfortable as 

 possible. 



CARRYING AN OX EIGHT MILES. 



THE route now lay through swamps, chocked with immense 

 papyrus rushes ; and in passing through a muddy bottom one of 

 the riding oxen that was ill stuck fast, and had to be abandoned. 

 On arriving at the next village, fifty men were hired to return 

 and drag the ox out with ropes, so that its life might be saved, 

 while Baker and his party continued on to a village some eight 

 miles distant, where they camped for the night. Shortly after 

 sunset they suddenly heard a great singing in chorus advancing 

 rapidly from a distance. At first they imagined that the natives 

 intended to compliment them with a dance ; but in a few minutes 

 the boy Saat introduced a headman, who told Baker that the 

 riding ox had died in the swamp where he had stuck fast in the 

 morning, and that the natives had brought his body to camp. 

 ?What!" he exclaimed, "brought his body, the entire ox, to 

 me?" "The entire ox as he died is delivered at your door," 

 answered the headman ; " I could not allow any of your property 

 to be lost upon the road. Had the body of the ox not been 

 delivered to you, we might have been suspected of having stolen 

 it." They had carried the ox about eight miles on a litter, which 

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