176 MOON-BLINDNESS. Chap. VIII. 



may happen to lie ; and it is a pretty sight to look up and 

 see every branch, leaf, and twig of the tree stand out, re- 

 flected against the clear star-spangled and moonlit sky. The 

 stars of the first magnitude have names which convey the 

 same meaning over very wide tracts of country. Here when 

 Venus comes out in the evenings, she is called Ntanda, the 

 eldest or first-born, and Manjika, the first-born of morn- 

 ing, at other times : she has so much radiance when shining 

 alone, that she casts a shadow. Sirius is named Kuewa usiko, 

 " drawer of night," because supposed to draw the whole night 

 after it. The moon has no evil influence in this country, so 

 far as we know. We have lain and looked up at her, till sweet 

 sleep closed our eyes, unharmed. Four or five of our men 

 were affected with moon-blindness at Tette ; though they 

 had not slept out of doors there, they became so blind 

 that their comrades had to guide then- hands to the general 

 dish of food ; the affection is unknown in their own 

 country. When our posterity shall have discovered what it 

 is which, distinct from foul smells, causes fever, and what, 

 apart from the moon, causes men to be moon-struck, they 

 will pity our dulness of perception. 



The men cut a very small quantity of grass for them- 

 selves, and sleep in fumbas or sleeping-bags, which are 

 double mats of palm-leaf, six feet long by four wide, and 

 sewn together round three parts of the square, and left 

 open only on one side. They are used as a protection 

 from the cold, wet, and mosquitoes, and are entered as we 

 should get into our beds, were the blankets nailed to the 

 top, bottom, and one side of the bedstead. When they 

 are all inside their fumbas, nothing is seen but sacks lying- 

 all about the different fires. At times two persons sleep 

 inside one, which is, indeed, close packing. Matonga, one of 



