1 884.] 
Among the Barotse. 
93 
EXTREME HEAT AND FLOODS. 
February 6fh. — Much better; have been keeping indoors 
more during the day, and am getting on well with the Testament 
and a dictionary of Sekololo and Serotsi (the languages of the 
Makololo and the Barotse). 
The heat so affects everything that the people of the town are 
all either asleep or lazily lying about, drinking thin beer. Not 
even a dog is seen. The oxen out in the plain try to stand or lie 
in each' other's shadow, caring little for the rich long grass all 
around; the king's horses get into the shade of some hut, and 
their heads hang wearily between their knees ; scarcely a bird 
flutters, and the smoke from the little fire at which the boys 
are cooking my dinner ascends slowly in an even column through 
the hot air. Such days are generally followed by a tremendous 
thunderstorm, lightning without intermission, and startling crashes 
of thunder, far on into the night. During a severe thunderstorm 
the natives do not eat, drink, or work. 
12th. — The valley is now flooded; one cannot go a few yards 
from the door without a boat. 
20th. — The king and the people of the town, my scholars 
included, have gone on a grand deer-hunt, so I am left alone, 
with only a few women and slaves in the town. I have taken 
advantage of this quietness to begin chair-making and sewing, 
and to clean my gun for some duck and goose shooting, my only 
hope of getting some meat during the king's absence. The 
slaves of the town got up a fight in their masters' absence, and 
two men were brought to me to have their wounds stanched and 
bound up. The one had a knife-stab, the other's head and face 
had been laid open with an axe. 
22nd. — Last night an attempt was made to break into my 
house. To-day the king's head-servant sent round the town crier, 
threatening with death any who should attempt to steal from me. 
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE ON HEALTH. 
March i^fh. — Have had a run of quartan ague all this month. 
Hearing that Senhor Porto was laid up, I borrowed a boat 
and went across the valley, and found him very ill indeed 
with ophthalmia. 
