March.] 
AT LATTAKOO. 
n 
best to be done. He remarked that water on 
the way was rather scarce. 
In the afternoon, Mateebe stood without, de- 
siring to see me. On going to him, he pointed 
to a beautiful dark brown ox, held by some of 
the people, saying that ox was a present from 
him to me. When I desired them to give my 
thanks to Mateebe for his present, they told him 
that my heart was sweet, i. e. cheered. 
I took the opportunity to explain to Mateebe 
some things respecting the heavenly bodies, such 
as the cause of the late eclipse of the sun, and 
what occasioned a lunar eclipse. He evidently 
hesitated to believe that the world ever came 
between the sun and moon. On telling him that 
white men came from the north, from countries 
beyond the black men, he shook his head, 
and pointed to the south, as if he had said, 
that he knew better, and was certain they came 
from the very opposite direction. This opinion 
was not surprising, as all white men who had 
visited him, had come from the Cape, which is 
south from Lattakoo, and many of his people 
had travelled far to the north, and had always 
found black men inhabiting those countries they 
had visited. While we were conversing, one of his 
sons brought me a calabash full of thick churned 
milk, as a present from Mahootoo, the queen. 
