THROUGH ZAMBESI A. 
391 
of the burial party a large crowd stood in front of it, 
shouting with greater vigour than before. 
The circumstances of these surroundings were far from 
being inspiriting, and thousands of anxious thoughts 
flashed through my mind at the time, when I felt that I 
was so completely at the mercy of these most heartless 
fiends, who look upon killing as a pleasure, and oidy 
await the word of their king to give them a human life 
for sport. 
I had said to myself, “ This town cannot hold me 
another night; ” but, again, there fell the shadows of the 
opposite huts cast by the rays of the lowering sun. To 
the east I saw the imposing Manganja crags rising two 
thousand feet above the plain, and the crimson and 
gold of their glowing granite slopes told of another 
night. 
Having still a few pounds of rice left, I boiled a little 
for snpper; and after partaking of this frugal repast, 
studied the small chart by the faint light coming from 
the smouldering embers of a root fire. I desired to fix 
my position, an experiment I did not dare to make in 
the daytime, being particularly careful not to show the 
sextant, w r atch, and papers, in case they might excite 
the suspicions of these fetich worshippers. On the sign 
of one error of judgment I might be despatched without 
grace or ceremony. 
I then began to turn over in my mind what course 
should be pursued. I remembered having been told in 
Tette that numbers of Maravi men had left on elephant 
hunting expeditions through this country, and that a 
month before my departure a Portuguese had started 
with a large escort of Maravi to hunt in the north. No 
sign of any hunting party had come under my notice 
since we left Deuka’s. The country was so vast, and as 
I had seen no elephant spoor, I came to the conclusion 
that any or all of such parties must be much farther 
north—nearer the lake perhaps. 
Long reveries and meditations upon future plans only 
intensified the dispiriting sense of helplessness. The 
spell was suddenly broken. 
