HUNGER. 163 



desist. Her husband used various incantations and vocife 

 rations to drive away the rain, but down it poured inces- 

 sant 1}', and on our Amazon went, in the very lightest 

 marching-order, and at a pace that few of the men could 

 keep up with. Being on ox-back, I kept pretty close to 

 our leader, and asked her why she did not clothe herself 

 daring the rain, and learned that it is not considered proper 

 for a chief to appear effeminate. He or she must always 

 wear the appearance of robust youth and bear vicissitudes 

 without wincing. My men, in admiration of her pedestrian 

 powers, every now and then remarked, " Manenko is a 

 soldier;" and, thoroughly wet and cold, we were all glad 

 when she proposed a halt to prepare our night's lodging 

 on the banks of a stream. 



Xext day Ave passed through apiece of forest so dense that 

 no one could have penetrated it without an axe. It was 

 flooded, not by the river, but by the heavy rains which 

 poured down every day and kept those who had clothing 

 constantly wet. I observed in this piece of forest a very 

 strong smell of sulphuretted hydrogen. This I had observed 

 repeatedly in other parts before. I had attacks of fever 

 of the intermittent type again and again, in consequence 

 of repeated drenchings in these unhealthy spots. 



On the 11th and 12th we were detained by incessant 

 rains, and so heavy 1 never saw the like in the south. I 

 had a little tapioca and a small quantity of Libonta meal, 

 Which I still reserved for worse times. The patience of 

 my men under hunger was admirable; the actual w T ant of 

 the present is never so painful as the thought of getting 

 nothing in the future. We thought the people of some 

 large hamlets very niggardly and very independent of their 

 chiefs, for they gave us and Manenko nothing, though they 

 had large fields of maize in an eatable state around them. 

 When she vent and kindly begged some for me, they gave 

 ner five ears only. They were subjects of her uncle, and, 

 had they been Makololo, would have been lavish in their 

 gifts to the niece of their chief. I suspected that they 



