HEAVY RAINS. 279 



there was aught supernatural in it ; and had Mr. Murray, 

 who kindly brought it from England, seen its popularity 

 among both Makololo and Balonda, he would have been 

 gratified with the direction his generosity then took. 

 It was the only mode of instruction I was ever pressed 

 to repeat. The people came long distances, for the express 

 purpose of seeing the objects and hearing the explana- 

 tions. 



One cannot get away quickly from these chiefs, they 

 like to have the honour of strangers residing in their 

 villages ; here we had an additional cause of delay in 

 frequent rains — twenty-four hours never elapsed without 

 heavy showers ; everything is affected by the dampness : 

 surgical instruments become all rusty, clothing mildewed, 

 and shoes mouldy ; my little tent was now so rotten 

 and so full of small holes, that every smart shower caused 

 a fine mist to descend on my blanket, and made me fain 

 to cover the head with it. Heavy dews lay on everything 

 in the morning, even inside the tent ; there is only a 

 short time of sunshine in the afternoon, and even that 

 is so interrupted by thunder-showers that we cannot dry 

 our bedding. 



The winds coming from the north, always bring heavy 

 clouds and rain ; in the south, the only heavy rains noticed 

 are those which come from the north-east or east. The 

 thermometer falls as low as 72 ° when there is no sunshine, 

 though, when the weather is fair, the protected ther- 

 mometer generally rises as high as 82 , even in the morn- 

 ings and evenings. 



24th. — We expected to have started to-day, but Sam- 

 banza, who had been sent off early in the morning for 

 guides, returned at midday without them, drunk. This 

 was the first case of real babbling intoxication we had 

 seen in this region. The boyaloa, or beer of the country, 

 has more of a stupefying than exciting nature ; hence 

 the beer-bibbers are great sleepers ; they may frequently 

 be seen lying on their faces sound asleep. This peculiarity 

 of posture was ascribed, by no less an authority than 

 Aristotle, to wine, while those who were sent asleep by 

 beer were believed "to he upon their backs." 



Sambanza had got into a state of inebriation from 

 indulging in mead, similar to that which Shinte presented 

 to us, which is much more powerful than boyaloa. As 

 far as we could collect from his incoherent sentences, 



