THE SUN AS GUIDE. 323 



may become attached ; when it happens to lay hold of 

 the mouth of an ox, the animal stands and roars with pain 

 and a sense of helplessness. 



Wherever a part of the forest has been cleared for a 

 garden, and afterwards abandoned, a species of plant with 

 leaves like those of ginger springs up, and contends for 

 the possession of the soil with a great crop of ferns. This 

 is the case all the way down to Angola, and shows the 

 great difference of climate between this and the Bechuana 

 country, where a fern, except one or two hardy species, is 

 never seen. The plants above mentioned bear a pretty 

 pink flower close to the ground, which is succeeded by a 

 scarlet fruit full of seeds, yielding, as so many fruits in 

 this country do, a pleasant acid juice, which like the rest 

 is probably intended as a corrective to the fluids of the 

 system in the hot climate. 



On leaving the Chihune we crossed the I^onge, and, as 

 the day was cloudy, our guides wandered in a forest away 

 to the west till we came to the river Chihombo, flowing to 

 the K.N.K. My men depended so much on the sun for 

 guidance that, having seen nothing of the luminary all 

 day, they thought we had wandered back to the Chiboque,. 

 and, as often happens when bewildered, they disputed as 

 to the point where the sun should rise next morning. As 

 soon as the rains would allow next day, we went off to 

 the N.K. It would have been better to have travelled 

 by compass alone, for the guides took advantage of any 

 fears expressed by my people, and threatened to return if 

 presents were not made at once. But my men had never 

 left their own country before, except for rapine and 

 murder. When they formerly came to a village they were 

 in the habit of killing numbers of the inhabitants, and 

 then taking a few young men to serve as guides to the 

 next place. As this was their first attempt at an opposite 

 line of conduct, and as they were without their shields, 

 they felt defenceless among the greedy Chiboque, and 

 some allowance must be made for them on that 

 account. 



Saturday, nth. — Reached a small village on the banks 

 of a narrow stream. I was too ill to go out of my little 

 covering, except to quell a mutiny which began to show 

 itself among some of the Batoka and Ambonda of our 

 party. They grumbled, as they often do against their 

 chiefs, when they tliink them partial in their gifts, because 



