42 CROSS PURPOSES. Chaf. Ill 



Englishman. — " Where are the waggons ? ' 



Real answer of guide. — " I don't know. I have wandered. 1 

 never wandered before. I arn qnite lost." 



Supposed answer. — " I don't know. I want water. I am 

 glad, I am quite pleased. I am thankful to you." 



Englishman. — " Take us to the waggons, and you will get 

 plenty of water." 



Real answer of guide (looking vacantly around). — "How did I 

 wander ? Perhaps the well is there, perhaps not. I don't 

 know. I have wandered." 



Supposed answer. — "Something about thanks; he says he is 

 pleased, and mentions water again." 



The guide's vacant stare, while trying to remember, is 

 thought to indicate mental imbecility, and the repeated thanks 

 were supposed to indicate a wish to deprecate their wrath. 



First Englishman. — " Well, Livingstone has played us a 

 pretty trick, giving us in charge of an idiot, Catch us 

 trusting him again. What can this fellow mean by his thanks 

 and talk about water? 0, you born fool! take us to the 

 waggons, and you will get both meat and water. Wouldn't a 

 thrashing bring him to his senses again ? " 



Second Englishman. — " No, no, for then he will run away, and 

 we shall be worse off than we are now." 



The hunters regained the waggons next day by their own 

 sagacity, which becomes wonderfully quickened by a sojourn 

 in the Desert. 



I sometimes felt annoyed at the low estimation in which 

 some of my hunting friends were held ; for believing that the 

 contest with wild beasts is well adapted for fostering that 

 coolness in emergencies which we all admire, I was anxious 

 that the natives should entertain a higher opinion of my 

 countrymen. " Have these hunters, who come so far and 

 work so hard, no meat at home ?" — " Why, these men are rich, 

 and could slaughter oxen every day of their lives." — "And 

 yet they come here, and endure so much thirst, for the sake of 

 this dry meat, none of which is equal to beef?" — "Yes, it is 

 for the sake of the play * it affords." This produces a laugh, 

 as much as to say, " Ah, you know better;" or, " Your friends 

 are fools." When they can get a man to kill large quantities 



* Tht re is no terra in their language to express the idea of sport. 



