442 tHE WORLD* S WONDERS. 



the cause. Mukondoku, the chief of the populous district two 

 days to the northeast, was marching to attack the young Mtemi, 

 Kiwyeh, and the latter's soldiers were called to the fight. The 

 men rushed to their villages, and in a short time they were arrayed 

 in full fighting costume. Feathers of the ostrich and the eagle 

 waved over their fronts, or the mane of the zebra surrounded 

 their heads ; their knees and ankles were hung with little bells ; 

 joho robes floated behind, from their necks ; spears, assegais, 

 knob-sticks and bows were flourished over their heads, or held 

 in their right hands, as if ready for hurling. On each flank of 

 a large body which issued from the principal village, and which 

 came at a uniform swinging double-quick, the ankle and knee- 

 bells all chiming in admirable unison, were a cloud of skirmishers, 

 consisting of the most enthusiastic, who exercised themselves in 

 mimic war as they sped along. Column after column, companies 

 and groups from every village hurried on past the camp, until 

 probably there were nearly a thousand soldiers gone to the war. 



ROUGH TRAVELING. 



THE alarm, very fortunately, proved a false one, and on the 

 following day the march was renewed with the rapidity of a 

 flying column. No further difficulties were experienced until 

 April 13th, when the caravan reached the valley of the Mukon- 

 dokwa river. Here they had to wade through mire and water, 

 sometimes up to a man's neck, while torrents of rain poured 

 down incessantly. On the 13th it rained the whole night, and 

 the morning brought no cessation. Mile after mile they trav- 

 ersed over fields covered by the inundation, until they came to a 

 branch river-side once again, where the river was narrow and 

 too deep to ford in the middle. They cut a tree down, and so 

 contrived that it should fall right across the stream. Over this 

 fallen tree the men, bestriding it, cautiously moved before them 

 their bales and boxes ; but one young fellow through over-zeal, 

 or in sheer madness took up the Doctor's box, containing his 

 letters and journal of his discoveries., on his head, and started 

 into the river. Stanley had been the first to arrive on the oppo- 

 site bank, in order to superintend the crossing, when he caught 



