chap, vii.] EFFECTS OF RAIN UPON NATIVES. 
261 
delightful! ” I exclaimed, as I turned round to see how 
my followers were enjoying it. Dear me ! I hardly 
knew my own people. Of all the miserable individuals 
I ever saw, they were superlative—they were not enjoy¬ 
ing the change of climate in the least;—with heads 
tucked down and streams of water running from their 
nasal extremities, they endeavoured to avoid the storm. 
Perfectly thoughtless of all but self in the extremity 
of their misery, they had neglected the precaution of 
lowering the muzzles of their guns, and my beautiful 
No. 10 rifles were full of water. “Charming day!” I 
exclaimed to my soaked and shivering followers, who 
looked like kittens in a pond. They muttered some¬ 
thing that might be interpreted “ What’s fun to you is 
death to us.” I comforted them with the assurance 
that this was an English climate on a midsummer day. 
If my clothed Arabs suffered from cold, where was my 
naked guide ? He was the most pitiable object I ever 
saw; with teeth chattering and knees knocking together 
with cold, he crouched under the imaginary shelter of 
a large tamarind tree ; he was no longer the clean black 
that had started as my guide, but the cold and wet 
had turned him grey, and being thin, he looked like an 
exaggerated slate-pencil. 
Not wishing to discourage my men, I unselfishly 
turned back just as I was beginning to enjoy myself, 
