THE GUIDE SHOBO. 93 



guide over the waste between these springs and the country of 

 Sebituane. Shobo gave us no hope of water in less than a 

 month. Providentially, however, we came sooner than we ex- 

 pected to some supplies of rain-water in a chain of pools. It 

 is impossible to convey an idea of the dreary scene on which we 

 entered after leaving this spot : the only vegetation was a low 

 scrub in deep sand ; not a bird or insect enlivened the landscape. 

 It was, without exception, the most uninviting prospect I ever 

 beheld ; and, to make matters worse, our guide Shobo wandered 

 on the second day. We coaxed him on at night, but he went to 

 all points of the compass on the trails of elephants which had 

 been here in the rainy season, and then would sit down in the 

 path, and in his broken Sichuana say, "No water, all country 

 only ; Shobo sleeps ; he breaks down ; country only ;" and then 

 coolly curl himself up and go to sleep. The oxen were terri- 

 bly fatigued and thirsty ; and on the morning of the fourth day, 

 Shobo, after professing ignorance of every thing, vanished alto- 

 gether. We went on in the direction in which we last saw him, 

 and about eleven o'clock began to see birds ; then the trail of a 

 rhinoceros. At this we unyoked the oxen, and they, apparently 

 knowing the sign, rushed along to find the water in the River 

 Mahabe, which comes from the Tamunak'le, and lay to the west 

 of us. The supply of water in the wagons had been wasted by 

 one of our servants, and by the afternoon only a small portion 

 remained for the children. This was a bitterly anxious night ; 

 and next morning the less there was of water, the more thirsty 

 the little rogues became. The idea of their perishing before our 

 eyes was terrible. It would almost have been a relief to me to 

 have been reproached with being the entire cause of the catas- 

 trophe ; but not one syllable of upbraiding was uttered by their 

 mother, though the tearful eye told the agony within. In the 

 afternoon of the fifth day, to our inexpressible relief, some of the 

 men returned with a supply of that fluid of which we had never 

 before felt the true value. 



The cattle, in rushing along to the water in the Mahabe, prob- 

 ably crossed a small patch of trees containing tsetse, an insect 

 which was shortly to become a perfeet pest to us. Shobo had 

 found his way to the Bayeiye, and appeared, when we came up 

 to the river, at the head of a party ; and, as he wished to show 



