58 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. III. 



•soon as we saw it, illness was plainly visible. Whenever an 

 .animal has been in their power the sepoys have abused it. 

 It is difficult to feel charitably to fellows whose scheme seems 

 to have been to detach the Nassick boys from me first, 

 then, when the animals were all killed, the Johanna men, 

 .afterwards they could rule me as they liked, or go back and 

 leave me to perish ; but I shall try to feel as charitably as I 

 -can in spite of it all, for the mind has a strong tendency to 

 brood over the ills of travel. I told the havildar when I 

 ■came up to him at Metaba what I had done, and that I was 

 very much displeased with the sepoys for compassing my 

 failure, if not death ; an unkind word had never passed my 

 lips to them : to this he could bear testimony. He thought 

 that they would only be a plague and trouble to me, but he 

 " would go on and die with me." 



Stone boiling is unknown in these countries, but ovens are 

 made in anthills. Holes are dug in the ground for baking 

 the heads of large game, as the zebra, feet of elephants, 

 humps of rhinoceros, and the production of fire by drilling 

 between the palms of the hands is universal. It is quite 

 common to see the sticks so used attached to the clothing 

 •or bundles in travelling ; they wet the blunt end of the 

 upright stick with the tongue, and dip it in the sand to 

 make some particles of silica adhere before inserting it in 

 the horizontal piece. The wood of a certain wild fig-tree is 

 ■esteemed as yielding fire readily. 



In wet weather they prefer to carry fire in the dried 

 balls of elephants' dung which are met with — the male's 

 being about eight inches in diameter and about a foot long : 

 "they also employ the stalk of a certain plant which grows 

 on rocky places for the same purpose. 



We bought a senze, or Aulaeaudatus Swindemianus, which 

 had been dried over a slow fire. This custom of drying fish, 

 flesh, and fruits, on stages over slow fires, is practised very 

 generally: the use of salt for preservation is unknown. 



