Chap. XXXVII. GUINE AWORM. ~ RAIN STORM. 547 
whose nakedness exposed all their limbs to view, 
suffered less from it. 
There seemed to be no superfluous supply of water 
in the district through which our road then lay, 
which appeared as dry as I had left it, only thinly 
scattered and lonely blades of grass shooting up here 
and there ; but yet there was a favoured spot where 
the road from Marte to Alarge crossed our path, 
adorned with fine, wide-spreading tamarind-trees, 
and rain-clouds were approaching from the east to 
fertilize the soil, and make it capable of production. 
We therefore hurried on, and took shelter in the 
village Mallem-Shishi, in order to let the storm pass 
over ; our hut, however, was so incapable of resisting 
heavy rain, that as soon as the storm broke out we 
were almost swamped. The carelessness with which 
the houses of the natives are built in this region 
is an unmistakable evidence of the difference of the 
climate ; on the other side, we have seen the neat 
huts of the people of Fumbina, and we shall see 
those of the despised pagan natives of Miisgu. The 
people assured me that this was the first regular rain 
which they had had this year, the first preparatory 
shower having fallen thirty days ago, and the second 
two days ago. 
The clouds having taken a southerly direction, we 
started forth in the afternoon, after some hesitation, 
but had scarcely been an hour on the march, and were 
just in the middle of a wide dismal-looking ghaclir or 
firki, when the clouds, having gathered again over our 
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