68 THE GUIDE SHOBO. 



dreary scene on which we entered after leaving this spot : 

 the only vegetation was a low scrub in deep sand ; not a 

 bird or insect enlivened the landscape. It was without 

 exception the most uninviting prospect I ever beheld ; 

 and, to make matters worse, our guide Shobo wandered 

 on the second day. We coaxed him on at night, but he 

 went to all points of the compass on the trails of elephants 

 which had been here in the rainy season ; and then would 

 sit down in the path, and in his broken Sichuana say, 

 " No water, all country only ; — Shobo sleeps ; — he breaks 

 down ; — country only ; " — and then coolly curl himself up 

 and go to sleep. The oxen were terribly fatigued and 

 thirsty ; and on the morning of the fourth day Shobo, 

 after professing ignorance of everything, vanished alto- 

 gether. We went on in the direction in which we last saw 

 him, and about eleven o'clock began to see birds ; then 

 the trail of a rhinoceros. At this we unyoked the oxen, 

 and they, apparently knowing the sign, rushed along to 

 find the water in the river Mababe, which comes from the 

 Tamunak'le, and lay to the west of us. The supply of 

 water in the waggons had been wasted by one of our 

 servants, and by the afternoon only a small portion re- 

 mained for the children. This was a bitterly anxious 

 night ; and next morning the less there was of water, the 

 more thirsty the little rogues became. The idea of their 

 perishing before our eyes was terrible. It would almost 

 have been a relief to me to have been reproached with 

 being the entire cause of the catastrophe, but not one 

 syllable of upbraiding was uttered by their mother, though 

 the tearful eye told the agony within. In the afternoon 

 of the fifth day, to our inexpressible relief , some of the men 

 returned with a supply of that fluid of which we had never 

 before felt the true value. 



The cattle in rushing along to the water in the Mababe 

 probably crossed a small patch of trees containing tsetse, 

 an insect which was shortly to become a perfect pest to 

 us. Shobo had found his way to the Bayeiye, and 

 appeared, when we came up to the river, at the head of 

 a party ; and, as he wished to show his importance before 

 his friends, he walked up boldly and commanded our 

 whole cavalcade to stop, and to bring forth fire and 

 tobacco, while he coolly sat down and smoked his pipe. 

 It was such an inimitably natural way of showing off, 

 that we all stopped to admire the acting, and, though he 



