JOURNEY FROM ASHAKA TO MAIFONI 239 



After some time his messenger came back to say that the 

 horses would not be ready before morning, so, bidding good- 

 bye to the Shehu, I spent the remaining hours of the night 

 resting in a straw shed outside the palace, which is used as a 

 guard house. The Shehu offered me the shelter of one of 

 his houses, but I felt too weary and anxious to move from 

 where I was. In the morning we made an early start, but 

 when about two miles on the road, I was seized suddenly with 

 a most violent colic (for which I am inclined to blame the 

 Shehu's candy), so I was obliged to return to Kukawa and 

 lie down for a while. The carriers had in the meantime come 

 in, and I was able to get at my medicines and best friend of 

 all, my hot-water bottle. 



By four in the afternoon I was better and on the road 

 again, and we reached Mongonnu, a distance of fifteen miles, 

 in the evening. As it was growing dusk, a large leopard 

 bounded across the road just in front of my horse and Jose 

 fired his revolver at it as it made off in the bush. 



The King of Mongonnu, a big, fat, homely man, received 

 us with much friendhness and a big fire in a large round hut, 

 where Lowi attended to my needs with a cup of hot bovril. 

 Here we found remounts waiting for us by order of the Shehu, 

 and after a few hours' rest were in the saddle again. We 

 passed the town of Wulo in the morning, but pressed on 

 without stopping to change horses, as it was early. How- 

 ever, as the day wore on, our horses showed signs of knocking 

 up, so we left the road at the next Shua village which was a 

 Uttle way off in the bush, for the purpose of commandeering 

 fresh ones. On our approach we saw plenty, for the Shua 

 are great horse-breeders, but when we made our wants known 



