78 
THE NEW AFRICA 
vicling many hundreds of miles suitable for navigation against 
the ordinary two-knot current. 
Along this bank we passed many landing-places of the 
natives from the islands, who come to the mainland to replenish 
their exhausted stock of fuel, and also to cultivate the soil, 
winning corn, pumpkins, millet, sweet potatoes, etc., as the 
result of their labours, while for safety they occupy their island 
homes at night, guarded by the impenetrable masses of reeds, 
through which they alone of human beings can move freely. 
Our bearers commenced to show signs of nettle-rash— 
‘ urticaria ’—from over-feeding on fatty meat, necessitating an 
application to the medicine-chest, with satisfactory results. 
They were much surprised to experience that so little medicine 
as we gave them should have the desired effect, and gained a 
high opinion of our powers as medicine-men. 
The new clothes donned by the expedition at this point, 
being from their colour much too conspicuous for hunting 
purposes, were dyed in a concoction of ‘ mopani ’ broth, boiled all 
night in a large pot from the bark. The result from immersion 
in this was most satisfactory, giving first a delicate rose-colour, 
gradually changing during use into dirty brown, most suitable 
for the purpose, although in civilisation certain to attract un¬ 
welcome attention. We picked up an earthen¬ 
ware pot in a deserted village, burnt yellowish 
white, showing that the natives are roughly 
acquainted with the art of pottery. This pot 
was three feet high, quite a foot in diameter, 
in shape like the salt-pots of the fishermen on 
the Baltic Sea, without any handles. From the 
natives we learned that we were opposite Seke- 
letu’s old camp, near Linyanti. Here we made a particularly 
comfortable ‘ skerm ’ for the night. While sleeping in the open 
it is usual to build a semicircular wall of interlaced branches and 
trees, with its back to the wind. Inside this structure, which 
goes by the name of ‘ skerm ’ in the interior, the goods were 
placed in convenient positions for the night, while we rolled out 
