490 THE RAINS BEGINNING. 



We cannot tell how the inspiring hope of Africa's redemption 

 strengthened the heart and hand of the great man who, in all 

 his devotion to science, was still obeying the loftier anxieties 

 which first moved him to lay himself on God's altar an offering 

 for the heathen. More and more he needed to be sustained; no 

 aspiration could more than match the painfulness of the daily 

 life he was leading. The hills were clothed with forests of 

 dwarf trees, whose spreading boughs accumulated the heavy 

 drops of the rains which were beginning to fall very frequently, 

 and seemed to take delight in shaking their dripping leaves just 

 when the travellers passed, as if conspiring with the clouds to 

 drench them most unpityingly. This region, like other parts 

 of the land, receives its favors from above at regular intervals, 

 and there are long periods when the sun holds undisputed 

 sway ; and though the heat is not so intolerable as in the barren 

 regions, and the atmosphere is purer than in the rank marshes 

 of the lower lands along the great rivers, the ground becomes 

 dry and hard, and all about its surface are deep cracks which, 

 in the rainy season, are soon filled, and their lingering traces 

 hidden by beautiful grasses and flowers. Now and then the 

 monotony of the scrub forests was relieved by the appearance 

 of statelier trees; the majestic mopane sometimes appeared, and 

 beautiful birds, and odd little insects, and various animals — 

 elands, zebras, gnus, kamas, pallahe, buffaloes, and reed-bucks. 

 These are among the choice game of the country, and the doctor 

 was fortunate, although he was no longer skilful as a hunter, 

 in securing considerable supplies. Perhaps no animal in Africa 

 is at once so much admired for its beauty and at the same time 

 so highly valued for its flesh as the singularly wild and fantastic 

 zebra ; his beautiful stripes flashing in the sun, and his marvel- 

 lous gracefulness as he dashes about the flowers or through the 

 forests, fill the beholder with admiration, and there is no finer 

 sport than dashing into the midst of the splendid herds of them 

 which move about almost anywhere. 



After innumerable annoyances from guides and trouble with 

 carriers and days of struggling along the most unpath-like- 

 paths, Livingstone at last reached the Loangwa and halted at 

 the stronghold of Maranda. But wearying as the march had 

 been, there was nothing refreshing to be seen or heard there, 



