FROM KUKAWA TO KADDAI 311 



I now bethought me to turn water-finder on a large scale, 

 and accordingly set out in search of Lake Chad. After 

 plunging about for some time, at the cost of more rending 

 of garments I at length got through the belt of thorn and 

 reeds, when, Eureka ! there was a sheet of open water, fully 

 ten yards across to another belt on the farther side. My 

 approach disturbed quite a number of plover and waterfowl 

 taking their pastime therein as though it were the only lake 

 within miles. Perhaps it was, yet I returned to camp, 

 strangely contented with the little I had seen and heard. 



Not so Talbot, who came in soon afterwards having hunted 

 all the afternoon and killed nothing. Our exertions, however, 

 had induced appetites that fortunately could be satisfied 

 and, though no spoil of the chase graced the board, we were 

 not reluctant to sit down to an early evening meal, which 

 consisted of soup, fish cakes made of sweet potatoes 

 pounded up with fish powder, and chicken cutlets in bread 

 crumbs — or " cutlegs " as the "boys" used to call them 

 in their best attempts to master the intricate terms of the 

 menu. These were pleasant evenings by the lakeside, beneath 

 the wondrous depth of the blue, starlit vault, with lazy 

 conversation and still lazier thought, that seemed almost to 

 have voice in the profound stillness of the night. I call 

 " fire ! " and Quasso noiselessly brings a burning stick to 

 light my pipe. And while my thoughts dissolve into the 

 airy stuff of dreams as I watch the glow of my pipe come 

 and go, Talbot, who never smokes, looks up to find his 

 friends among the stars. There were the soft-veiled 

 Pleiades and red Aldabran climbing to the meridian, and 

 low in the South hung the Southern Cross that marks the 



