286 THREE LIONS AND A SNAKE SEEN. [1820. 
flesh ; but this morning, a little after sunrise, 
some of his servants passed, so loaded with its 
flesh, that they were bending under the weight. 
Maketzee did not expect we should have seen 
this. They had staid behind, and meant to have 
passed us with it to his wife before daylight. He 
was evidently ashamed at the discovery. 
We departed at eleven a.m., and travelled 
among long grass, where there is seldom small 
game, because in such situations they cannot 
readily see the approach of their enemies. Three 
lions were sfeen near the waggons. Therm. 60. 
At four p. M. we halted at the same place we had 
done the evening after leaving Mashow, where 
we had so much rain. The spot on which our 
waggons had stood appeared like a quagmire 
newly dried up. 
18th. The Matchappees, on taking up the 
skins on which they had slept during the night, 
found a snake, which they instantly killed. Se- 
veral of our followers, with their pack-oxen loaded 
with rhinoceros' flesh, went forward, before us 
during the night, towards Mashow, as it is not 
customary to carry provisions into the towns in 
the day-time, because the applications for a share 
of them would be far too numerous to be complied 
with. For the same reason, they seldom take a 
meal till it is dark, so that a stranger coming 
