GREAT SUFFERINGS. 601 



Dr. Livingstone soon found his strength failing again, and be- 

 came the prey of a most trying disease ; besides frequent fevers 

 he was attacked with severe choleraic purging. He had no 

 medicine; Mohamad had opium, but that had no effect. Some 

 relief was found in boiling the water which he used, but he 

 struggled on in great weakness. Mohamad, too, suffered. The 

 incessant wetting brought on rheumatism, and the whole party 

 complained. As they advanced northward the vegetation be- 

 came more and more luxuriant — the whole country was smoth- 

 ered with it; "an indescribable jungle of grass, which only 

 elephants could break through," received them whenever they 

 descended from the rounded hills. Passing through these 

 jungles the feet were constantly entangled among the reeds, 

 while the face and eyes were lashed by the leaves. One of 

 these valleys had been taken possession of by the Muabe palm; 

 the doctor says, "The leaf-stalks of these palms were as thick 

 and strong as a man's arm, and full twenty feet long. Many 

 of these had fallen off and blocked up all passage except one 

 path made and mixed up by the feet of buffaloes and elephants." 

 " In places like this," he continues, " the leg would frequently 

 sink into the holes made by elephants' feet up to the thighs." 

 Three long hours the party toiled through this dreary swamp. 

 Across a stream in this valley they found a natural bridge of 

 matted vegetation strong enough to bear a man's weight, and 

 conspicuous in the texture of it were many sacred lilies. Worn 

 out entirely by these dreadful jungles they stopped one day by 

 a village surrounded by gardens of maize, bananas, groundnuts, 

 and caasava. The doctor had fallen behind the main body of 

 Mohamad's men, and was almost fainting. The little village 

 looked like a paradise; he longed to rest, but the villagers "did 

 not want" him. A woman came forward — a woman with 

 leprous hand — and tendered him her hut; it was a nice clean 

 one, and he entered it just in time to escape a very heavy rain. 

 His hostess quickly prepared him food, and brought it to him 

 and kindly pressed him to eat. " You are weak only from hun- 

 ger," she said; "this will strengthen you." He could not tell 

 that he feared the leprosy, and took the food and put it out 

 of her sight. It will be a long time we think before a human 

 being travels beyond the range of human kindness. There can 

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