Chap. IV. 
THE GUIDE SHOBO. 
79 
guide over the waste between these springs and the country of 
Sebituane. Shobo gave us no hope of water in less than a 
month. Providentially, however, we came sooner than we 
expected to some supplies of rain-water in a chain of pools. It 
is impossible to convey an idea of the dreary scene on which we 
entered after leaving this spot: the only vegetation was a low 
scrub in deep sand; not a bhd or insect enlivened the landscape. 
It was without exception the most uninviting prospect I ever 
beheld; and, to make matters worse, our guide Shobo wandered 
on the second day. We coaxed him on at night, but he went to 
all points of the compass on the trails of elephants wliich had 
been here in the rainy season; and then would sit down in the 
path, and in his broken Sichuana say, ^^No water, all country 
only;—Shobo sleeps;—he breaks down—country only; ’’—and 
then coolly curl himself up and go to sleep. The oxen were 
terribly fatigued and tliirsty; and on the morning of the fourth 
day Shobo, after professing ignorance of everything, vanished 
altogether. We went on in the dhection in which we last saw 
him, and about eleven o’clock began to see bhds; then the 
trail of a rhinoceros. At this we unyoked the oxen, and they, 
apparently knowing the sign, rushed along to find the water in 
the river Mababe, which comes from the Tamunak’le, and lay to 
the west of us. The supply of water in the waggons had been 
wasted by one of our servants, and by the afternoon only a small 
portion remained for the children. Tins was a bitterly anxious 
night; and next morning the less there was of water, the more 
tlnrsty the little rogues became. The idea of their perishing 
before our eyes was terrible. It would almost have been a relief 
to me to have been reproached with being the entire cause of the 
catastrophe, but not one syllable of upbraiding was uttered by 
their mother, though the tearful eye told the agony witliin. In 
the afternoon of the fifth day, to our inexpressible relief, some of 
the men returned with a supply of that fluid of which we had 
never before felt the true value. 
The cattle in rushing along to the water in the Mababe pro¬ 
bably crossed a small patch of trees containing tsetse, an insect 
wliich was shortly to become a perfect pest to us. Shobo had 
found his way to the Bayeiye, and appeared, when we came up 
to the river, at the head of a party; and, as he wished to show 
