Chap. XXIV. LAKE DILOLO. 479 



I often observed, while on a portion of the partition, that the 

 air by night was generally quite still, but as soon as the sun's 

 rays began to shoot across the upper strata of the atmosphere 

 in the early morning, a copious discharge came suddenly down 

 from the accumulated clouds. It always reminded me of the 

 experiment of putting a rod into a saturated solution of a certain 

 salt, causing instant crystallization. This, too, was the period 

 when I often observed the greatest amount of cold. 



After crossing the Northern Lotembwa, we met a party of the 

 people of Kangenke, who had treated us kindly on our way to the 

 north, and sent him a robe of striped calico, with an explanation 

 of the reason for not returning through his village. We then 

 went on to the Lake Dilolo. It is a fine sheet of water, six or 

 eight miles long, and one or two broad, and somewhat of a trian- 

 gular shape. A branch proceeds from one of the angles, and 

 flows into the Southern Lotembwa. Though labouring under fever, 

 the sight of the blue Abaters, and the waves lashing the shore, had 

 a most sootliing influence on the mind, after so much of lifeless, 

 flat, and gloomy forest. The heart yearned for the vivid im- 

 pressions, which are always created by the sight of the broad 

 expanse of the grand old ocean. That has life in it ; but the flat 

 uniformities over which we had roamed, made me feel as if buried 

 alive. We found Moene Dilolo (Lord of the Lake) a fat jolly 

 fellow, who lamented that when they had no strangers they had 

 plenty of beer, and always none when they came. He gave us a 

 handsome present of meal and putrid buffalo's flesh. Meat cannot 

 be too far gone for them, as it is used only in small quantities as 

 a sauce to their tasteless manioc. They were at this time hunting 

 antelopes, in order to send the skins as a tribute to Matiamvo. 

 Great quantities of fish are caught in the lake ; and numbers of 

 young water-fowl are now found in the nests among the reeds. 



Our progress had always been slow, and I found that our rate 

 of travelling could only be five hours a-day for five successive days. 

 On the sixth, both men and oxen showed symptoms of knocking 

 up. We never exceeded two and a half, or three miles an hour in a 

 straight line, though all were anxious to get home. The difference 

 in the rate of travelling between ourselves and the slave-traders, 

 was our having a rather quicker step, a longer day's journey, and 

 twenty travelling days a-month instead of their ten. When one of 



