214 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



offence. Khudabakhsh, the brave of braves, being at- 

 tacked by a slight fever, lay down, declaring himself 

 unable to proceed, moaned like a bereaved mother, and 

 cried for drink like a sick girl. The rest of the Baloch, 

 headed by the Jemadar, were in the rear; they had 

 levelled their matchlocks at one of the armed parties 

 as it approached them, and, but for the interference of 

 Kidogo, blood would have been shed. 



By resting after every few yards, and by clinging to our 

 supporters, we reached, after about six hours, the summit 

 of the Pass Terrible, and there we sat down amongst the 

 aromatic flowers and bright shrubs — the gift of moun- 

 tain dews — to recover strength and breath. My com- 

 panion could hardly return an answer ; he had advanced 

 mechanically and almost in a state of coma. The view 

 from the summit appeared eminently suggestive, per- 

 haps unusually so, because disclosing a retrospect of 

 severe hardships, now past and gone. Below the fore- 

 ground of giant fractures, huge rocks, and detached 

 boulders, emerging from a shaggy growth of mountain 

 vegetation, with forest glens and hanging woods, black 

 with shade gathering in the steeper folds, appeared, 

 distant yet near, the tawny basin of Inenge, dotted with 

 large square villages, streaked with lines of tender green, 

 that denoted the water-courses, mottled by the shadows 

 of flying clouds, and patched with black where the grass 

 had been freshly fired. A glowing sun gilded the canopy 

 of dense smoke which curtained the nearer plain, and 

 in the background the hazy atmosphere painted with 

 its azure the broken wall of hill which we had traversed 

 on the previous day. 



Somewhat revived by the tramontana which rolled 

 like an ice-brook down the Pass, we advanced over an 

 easy step of rolling ground, decked with cactus and the 



