L UXURY OF A BATH. 151 



at the town of the Matabele king ; and the other, 

 a man named Dawson. 



" On my birthday I thought of you all, and old 

 times — and had a good wash. 1 ... I hope not 

 to be more than a week or so here in all, before 

 returning to Tati, en route for the Falls. Selous, the 

 hunting youth above mentioned, set off to-day. His 

 partner, George Wood, a Yorkshireman, is waiting 

 for him at Tati. They are both professional ivory- 

 hunters, and have a good deal of roughing it to do. 

 Selous was once lost for four days and three nights 

 in the veldt. The morning of the first day, when 

 he left the waggons, he had nothing but a cup of 

 coffee, and had neither a drop of water nor a morsel 

 of food of any description till the evening of the 

 fourth day, when he found his way back and got 

 some milk of a native. He thinks he could have 

 held out another day. 



" The brothers Garden are going to the Zambesi 

 also, the same way. There is another way of 

 reaching the Falls from here, shorter than the Tati 

 road, but at certain seasons deficient in water. It 

 is to the left of the Tati road. I should have 

 preferred it, but wanted to leave some things at 

 Tati and was not sure of finding water, going by 

 it. It appears, however, it would have been all 

 right, had I decided on that route. They tell me 



1 A rare luxury at the present time, only to be indulged in on 

 great or special occasions, owing to the increasing scarcity of water 

 with the cessation of the rains. " I am miserable," he writes one day 

 about this time, " for want of water to wash myself in, ever so super- 

 ficially." 



