THE BAROTSE COUNTRY. 
541 
with difficulty, I rose and proceeded to hear what they 
had to say. After a good deal of beating about the bush, 
they at length came to the point. They were going to 
leave me, seeing, as they did, the ugly turn that things 
were taking in the Lui, and only wanted to get back to 
the Bihe. The cowardly crew ! They were about to desert 
me at the very moment I most needed their services ! 
Miguel, the elephant-hunter, the pombeiro Chaqu^onge, 
and two carriers, Catiba and another, and Dr. Cha- 
CUBAXGO WOMAN’S HEAD-DRESS. 
caiombe, protested their fidelity, and declared they would 
stand by me. The whole of the Quimbcires also came 
forward to make a like declaration. This unexpected 
move on the part of the Bihenos restored to me, as if by 
magic, the cool determination which had abandoned me 
for days past. As difficulties were gathering all round, 
it behoved me to struggle with them, and I at once threw 
off the moral torpor which had been insidiously creeping- 
over my mind. I forthwith dismissed the Bihenos ; 
ordered them out of the camp, and delivered them over to 
