CHAP. VI.] ARRANGE A PEESENT FOE NANGORO. 185 



Chik, and he told me what to take, and what to leave 

 behind ; but showed very little rapture about anything 

 excejit some red beads and some bars of iron. At 

 my request he arranged a present for Nangoro. An 

 ox was essential, then a handful of red beads, and I 

 added my steel-scabbarded sword, a looking-glass, and 

 a few other things. I took the great crown, but said 

 nothing about it. 



I had always plenty of employment for my men ; 

 they dressed some hides and made them into good 

 saddle-bags, and also into packing reims, which have 

 to be no less than sixty feet long. It is perfectly 

 impossible to pack oxen with a short reim, for their 

 hide is so loose, and theii- sides so shaky, that the 

 packs require eight or ten turns of reim round them 

 on the ox's back before they are j)roperly fastened. 

 The tugging that is necessary is enormous. It 

 requires two skilled hands and one native to pack an 

 ox. The native holds him by his nose-reim (or thong) ; 

 the things are placed on his back, the middle of the 

 reim on the top of them, and the loose ends are pulled 

 under the ox's belly from the opposite side. Then 

 each packer puts his foot against the ox's ribs, and, 

 holding tightly his end of the reim, pulls at it with all 

 his might and mam, tiU the ox's waist is considerably, 

 and even fashionably, compressed ; then the reims are 

 crossed over his back, and the loose ends again drawn 

 through under his belly, and another pull is given 

 and so on, till the reim is exhausted ; finally the 

 ends are tied. 



My savages never could pack ; they had not strength 



