THROUGH ZAMBESI A. 
389 
I certainly fell asleep, but was again awakened. I 
heard as though whispered from without some words of 
a language which to me was perfectly strange. On 
hearing the sound I sat up, for drowsiness was easily 
thrown off. 
At the door were two dark figures. They turned out 
to be two women, who had evidently been stimulated to 
approach by copious indulgence in the favourite beverage. 
The pair did not move from the door until they were cap- 
THE HCNTEIl’s GRAVE. 
tivated by the sight of some blue beads, a Imall packet of 
which I had with me, which made them bolder, so that 
they entered the hut and sat down. I needed company 
very much, and was not particular. One of my unex¬ 
pected visitors was a very old and withered woman, and 
from former experience 1 judged her to be a slave. The 
other was a young and fat dame, with skin the colour of 
a cigar. She resembled the type that I had seen in 
Matabeli-land, and was evidently a good-natured girl, 
although she seemed to be in an anxiously watchful and 
timid state, not in fear of me, but apparently in case of 
