SLEEP OF EXHAUSTION. 349 



fused to go further ; " the Banyai," they said, " would be angry 

 if they showed white men the country ; and there was besides 

 no practicable approach to the spot, neither elephant, nor hippo- 

 potamus, nor even a crocodile could reach the cataract." The 

 slopes of the mountains on each side of the river, now not three 

 hundred yards wide, and without the flattish flood-channel and 

 groove, were more than three thousand feet from the sky-line 

 down, and were covered either with dense thornbush or huge 

 black boulders; this deep trough-like shape caused the sun's rays 

 to converge as into a focus, making the surface so hot that the 

 soles of the feet of the Makololo became blistered. Around, 

 and up and down, the party clambered among these heated 

 blocks, at a pace not exceeding a mile an hour ; the strain upon 

 the muscles in jumping from crag to boulder, and wriggling 

 round projections, took an enormous deal out of them, and they 

 were often glad to cower in the shadow formed by one rock 

 overhanging and resting on another ; the shelter induced the 

 peculiarly strong and overpowering inclination to sleep which 

 too much sun sometimes causes. This sleep is curative of what 

 may be incipient sunstroke ; in its first gentle touches it caused 

 the dream to flit over the boiling brain that they had become 

 lunatics and had been sworn in as members of the Alpine Club ; 

 and then it became so heavy that it made them feel as if a por- 

 tion of existence had been cut out from their lives. The sun 

 is excessively hot, and feels sharp in Africa ; but, probably from 

 the greater dryness of the atmosphere, we never heard of a single 

 case of sunstroke, so common in India. The Makololo told 

 Dr. Livingstone they " always thought he had a heart, but now 

 they believed he had none," and tried to persuade Dr. Kirk to 

 return, on the ground that it must be evident that, in attempt- 

 ing to go where no living foot could tread, his leader had given 

 unmistakable signs of having gone mad. All their efforts of 

 persuasion, however, were lo|t upon Dr. Kirk, as he had not 

 yet learned their language, and his leader knowing his com- 

 panion to be equally anxious with himself to solve the problem 

 of the navigableness of Kebrabasa, was not at pains to enlighten 

 him. At one part a bare mountain spur barred the way, and 

 had to be surmounted by a perilous and circuitous route, along 

 which the crags were so hot that it was scarcely possible for the 

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