348 



THE MORNING. 



characters were associated : there were strange stories of strange 

 people : of a strange race of men only three feet high, whom the 

 native narrator " had seen" in the interior of the continent; 

 people with horns growing out of their heads, and dwelling in a 

 great town where there was plenty of food ; stories stoutly main- 

 tained against the scorn of the Makololo, who counted their own 

 manly proportions proof conclusive that the interior produced 

 better men than dwarfs. But all places and times are prolific 

 of men who are either endowed with a singular facility of im- 

 personation or strongly impressed with a supposed identity with 

 the heroes of those fabulous stories which have beguiled the 

 leisure of men for ages ; and it may be supposed an honest mis- 

 take or an innocent vanity in the poor slave of a Portuguese 

 master to confound himself with the hero of adventures older 

 in the traditions of Africa than the time of Herodotus. 



The morning invariably brought realities which chased away 

 the pleasantest dreams, and convinced them if not of the truth 

 certainly of the possibility of the strangest adventures. At one 

 time the whole party were fording a tributary of the Zambesi, 

 holding their guns and baggage above their heads and thoroughly 

 soaked to their arm-pits, doubting whether they could produce 

 a satisfactory argument against the importunities of a hungry 

 crocodile, should one propose to dine on white man, just once. 

 Another time they were climbing an almost scorching rock under 

 the unrelenting sunrays, or watching one of their number crawl- 

 ing along the glossy black rocks toward a sleeping hippopotamus. 

 At length they reached the foot of Chipereziwa, whose perpen- 

 dicular rocky sides, clothed with many-colored lichens, their 

 Portuguese companions assured them marked the last obstruc- 

 tions to navigation. But they had hardly commenced their 

 backward journey, thinking over what they had seen and more 

 impressed with the difficulty than dignity of Kebrabasa, when 

 two natives, who came to their camp at night, assured them 

 that there was still in front of them a cataract called Morumbwa. 

 Drs. Livingstone and Kirk immediately decided to take with 

 them three of the Makololo and go forward until they settled 

 the question for themselves, and they were ever afterward willing 

 to confess that it was as tough a bit of travel as they ever had 

 in Africa. After some painful marching the Badema guides re- 



