A MIRACULOUS EECOVERY 



47 



and was comj)letely upset, every fibre tingling as if electrified, 

 and the perspiration pouring in streams over my emaciated 

 limbs. For weeks I had scarcely taken food or drink. 

 Twenty-four hours later a perfect nerve- storm ensued, and, 

 in spite of my prostration, I had no desire to eat. I had a 

 fancy for eggs if I took anything, for I could not touch milk 

 or soup. 



And the eggs came ! In such an unexpected manner, and so 

 entirely in the nick of time, that I could not but look upon 

 them as a gift from Heaven in my need. One of the men 

 found an ostrich's nest containing eleven fresh eggs, enough 

 to feed me for twenty days. Never before nor after did we 

 meet with ostrich eggs. I recovered but slowly even now, 

 and when we left for Nyemps on February 3 I had to be carried 

 in a hammock. 



We took some nineteen hundredweight of dried meat with 

 us, and we had sent more than twice as much to our people at 

 Nyemps the week before. On the morning of February 4 we 

 were back at our camp at Nyemps and busy with our pre- 

 parations to go further north. We had to carry such a quan- 

 tity of food that we were compelled to leave half our goods 

 behind us, and we built a strong wooden hut plastered with 

 loam in which to house them. 



It was difficult enough to decide what to take and what to 

 leave, but yet more difficult to know which way to go. Days 

 were consumed in talking the matter over with Jumbe Ivime- 

 meta and the natives, but we could get no certain intelligence 

 whatever. No one really knew whether there were two lakes 

 or one on the north, or even how far off was the nearest lake if 

 two there were. We had answers in plenty to our questions, 

 but they were all either vague or manifestly false. The size of 

 one lake, for instance, varied from two months' journey round 

 to one year's. It was, in fact, quite immeasurable ! 



