Chap. IV. THE GUIDE SHOBO. 79 



guide over the waste between these springs and the country of 

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

 month. Providentially, however, we came sooner than we 

 expected 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 tins 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 Avater, all country 

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

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

 terribly fatigued and thirsty ; and on the morning of the fourth 

 day Shobo, after professing ignorance of everything, vanished 

 altogether. 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 Mababe, which comes from the Tamunak'le, and lay to 

 the west of us. The supply of water in the waggons had been 

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

 portion remained for the children. Tliis 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 

 catastrophe, 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 winch we had 

 never before felt the true value. 



The cattle in rushing along to the water in the Mababe pro- 

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

 winch was shortly to become a perfect 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 



