326 
DISTRESS. 
[chap. XI. 
half a pound, each of which would bum for three 
hours. A piece of a broken water-jar formed a lamp, 
several pieces of rag serving for wicks. So in solitude 
the still calm night passed away as I sat by her side 
and watched. In the drawn and distorted features 
that lay before me I could hardly trace the same face 
that for years had been my comfort through all the 
difficulties and dangers of my path. Was she to die ? 
Was so terrible a sacrifice to be the result of my selfish 
exile ? 
Again the night passed away. Once more the march. 
Though weak and ill, and for two nights without 
a moment’s sleep, I felt no fatigue, but mechanically 
followed by the side of the litter as though in a dream. 
The same wild country diversified with marsh and 
forest. Again we halted. The night came, and I sat 
by her side in a miserable hut, with the feeble lamp 
flickering while she lay, as in death. She had never 
moved a muscle since she fell. My people slept. I 
was alone, and no sound broke the stillness of the 
night. The ears ached at the utter silence* till the 
sudden wild cry of a hyena made me shudder as the 
horrible thought rushed through my brain, that, should 
she be buried in this lonely spot, the hyena would ... 
disturb her rest. 
The morning was not far distant; it was past four 
o’clock. I had passed the night in replacing wet cloths 
upon her head and moistening her lips, as she lay 
apparently lifeless on her litter. I could do nothing 
more ; in solitude and abject misery in that dark hour, 
in a country of savage heathens, thousands of miles 
away from a Christian land, I beseeched an aid above 
.all human, trusting alone to Him. 
The morning broke; my lamp had just burnt out, 
and, cramped with the night’s watching, I rose from 
my low seat, and seeing that she lay in the same un¬ 
altered state, I went to the door of the hut to breathe 
one gasp of the fresh morning air. I was watching 
the first red streak that heralded the rising sun, when 
