CHAPTER Y111 
The Macheeayee—Rapid fall of temperature at night—Dispute with bearers—Lions 
disable game—Native pots—Harris buck or roan antelope—Dangerous forest 
fire—Cross the Sunta—Clever goats—Scared from hippo hunt in the moon¬ 
light by a lion—Buffalo and eland killed—Native language—Our course is 
altered by peculiar river—Jan Yeyers threatens to desert. 
From Linyanti upwards the Chobe swamps and islands are 
inhabited by a tribe called Macheeayee, similar in form and 
feature to the Mashubia, only of greater stature, some reaching 
the proportions of real giants, with an average height far exceed¬ 
ing that of any people I have ever seen. To our shouts of 
‘ Tisa Mokorro, Mokua fitili u reka Mabele ’—‘ Bring boats, the 
white men are here to buy corn ’—and assurances of friendship, 
the Macheeayee made no response, so that we were unable to 
obtain this much desired edible to make our meals of meat more 
palatable. 
On July the 10th the first mosquitos announced their presence 
in the usual unwelcome and assertive manner, but disappeared 
again as the cold evenings set in. The fact is interesting, that in 
winter the temperature, during the day moderately warm, sinks 
rapidly at night, necessitating proper blankets to eke out the 
warmth disseminated by a good log fire. In truth, mild frost in the 
early morning was no unusual occurrence at pans some distance 
from the river. This rapid change of temperature is owing 
largely to the extreme dryness of the air; for although the 
general altitude is about three thousand feet above sea level, 
the distance from any sea or water with a surface large enough 
to impregnate the atmosphere with its gases is too great to be 
of any effect, especially as both approaches from the west and 
east coasts to this basin are protected by higher ranges of moun- 
