THE BAMBOO. 3gg 



degrees of hardness, the most indurated being at the bottom. 

 This red clay shale is named " keele" in Scotland, and has always 

 been considered as an indication of gold ; but the only thing we 

 discovered was that it had given rise to a very slippery clay soil, 

 so different from that which we had just left that Mashauana, 

 who always prided himself on being an adept at balancing himself 

 in the canoe on water, and so sure of foot on land that he could 

 afford to express contempt for any one less gifted, came down in 

 a very sudden and undignified manner, to the delight of all whom 

 he had previously scolded for falling. 



Here we met with the bamboo as thick as a man's arm, and 

 many new trees. Others, which we had lost sight of since leav- 

 ing Shinte, now reappeared ; but nothing struck us more than the 

 comparative scragginess of the trees in this hollow. Those on the 

 high lands we had left were tall and straight ; here they were 

 stunted, and not by any means so closely planted together. The 

 only way I could account for this was by supposing, as the trees 

 were of different species, that the greater altitude suited the nature 

 of those above better than the lower altitude did the other species 

 below. 



Sunday, April 2d. We rested beside a small stream, and our 

 hunger being now very severe, from having lived on manioc alone 

 since leaving Ionza Panza's, we slaughtered one of our four re- 

 maining oxen. The people of this district seem to feel the crav- 

 ing for animal food as much as we did, for they spend much en- 

 ergy in digging large white larva? out of the damp soil adjacent to 

 their streams, and use them as a relish to their vegetable diet. 

 The Bashinje refused to sell any food for the poor old ornaments 

 my men had now to offer. We could get neither meal nor manioc, 

 but should have been comfortable had not the Bashinje chief San- 

 sawe pestered us for the customary present. The native traders 

 informed us that a display of force was often necessary before they 

 could pass this man. 



Sansawe, the chief of a portion of the Bashinje, having sent the 

 usual formal demand for a man, an ox, or a tusk, spoke very con- 

 temptuously of the poor things we offered him instead. We told 

 his messengers that the tusks were Sekeletu's : every thing was 

 gone except my instruments, which could be of no use to them 

 whatever. One of them begged some meat, and, when it was re- 



