160 AMONGST THE EESHIAT AND TO LAKE STEFANIE 



as tlie water gradually rose had become submerged with the 

 chamiel, the course of which they had lined. 



Where we had camped the shore was barren and covered 

 with white sand. The flat landscape on the west appeared to 

 resemble our surroundings, but between the dark groves of 

 the forest on the north we could catch sight here and there 

 of some little gleaming rivulet, or columns of smoke from 

 some village, giving us the comfortable assurance that we were 

 in a well-populated district, where plenty of food was to be 

 had, in a word, all for which we had been longing for so many 

 weeks and months. 



To meet the wishes of the natives w^e shifted our camp 

 nearer to the village the next day, and settled down on the 

 ridge of a low height which stretched alongside of the lake. 

 Scarcely anything grew on this hill, so that the material for our 

 fence had to be fetched from a distance. The few big trees 

 here were outside the boundary of the camp, close to the 

 entrance to the native village on the north. Qualla had 

 thought this the best arrangement so as to secure a shady place 

 for the daily market. On the east our hill sloped rapidly down 

 to a plain covered with fine red dusty soil, and dotted here and 

 there with trees and bush, whilst in the dried-up bed of a 

 stream was the rain pool which was to supply us with water. 



The natives, though they did not come in any great 

 numbers, were pretty constant visitors, not only from the 

 village, but from the outlying districts. Early in the morning 

 women brought the still warm milk in wooden vessels, whilst 

 later, a regular little market was opened and carried on as 

 quietly as that of the first day, partly because we kept to the 

 price settled then, of one string of beads for about two pints of 

 dhurra, and partly because, as already stated, our men were 

 forbidden to buy corn for themselves lest their competition 

 with us should send up prices. Scarcely anything else was 



