144 MODE OF PASSING THE NIGHT. 



my journal, my heart glows with gratitude to them, and I 

 hope and pray that God may spare me to make them some 

 return. 



Before leaving the villages entirely, we may glance at 

 our way of spending the nights. As soon as we land, some 

 of the men cut a little grass for my bed, while Mashauana 

 plants the poles of the little tent. These are used by day 

 for carrying burdens, for the Barotse fashion is exactly 

 like that of the natives of India, only the burden is fastened 

 near the ends of the pole, and not suspended by long cords. 

 The bed is made, and boxes ranged on each side of it, and 

 theL the tent pitched over all. Four or five feet in front 

 of my tent is placed the principal or kotla fire, the wood 

 for which must be collected by the man who occupies the 

 post of herald and takes as his perquisite the heads of all 

 the oxen slaughtered and of all the game too. Each per- 

 son knows the station he is to occupy in reference to the 

 post of honor at the fire in front of the door of the tent. 

 The two Makololo occupy my right and left, both in eating 

 and sleeping, as long as the journey lasts. But Mashauana, 

 my head-boatman, makes his bed at the door of the tent as 

 soon as I retire. The rest, divided into small companies 

 according to their tribes, make sheds all round the fire, 

 leaving a horseshoe-shaped space in front sufficient for the 

 cattle to stand in. The fire gives confidence to the oxen; 

 so the men are always careful to keep them in sight of it. 

 The sheds are formed by planting two stout forked poles 

 in an inclined direction, and placing another over these in a 

 horizontal position. A number of branches are then stuck in 

 the ground in the direction to which the poles are inclined, 

 the twigs drawn down to the horizontal pole and tied with 

 strips of bark. Long grass is then laid over the branches 

 in sufficient quantit}^ to draw off the rain, and we have 

 sheds open to the fire in front but secure from beasts be- 

 hind. In less than an hour we were usually all under cover, 

 We never lacked abundance of grass during the whole 

 journey. It is a picturesque sight at night, when the clear 



