BREAKING PACK-OXEN IN 
247 
Africa ever refused to accept presents. He religiously kept his 
promise, and sent back the saw. Unaccustomed as we had been 
to meet with truthful natives for months, his quiet behaviour, 
upright character, and agreeable personality were very refresh¬ 
ing to our worried minds, and we insisted that he should take a 
pair of saddle-bags that he had been wistfully eyeing for some 
time, and a few cartridges, as a memento of our goodwill towards 
him. 
We bought a pack-ox from Gonsalvus—at a price—and a 
young bull, more to get rid of our useless remaining goods than 
with the object of possessing the cattle, although these would 
come in handy for food later; and on the arrival of the beasts 
the boys held quite a circus, j ocularly declaring that now they 
were going to ride to the lake, being tired of walking. Chiki 
mounted first, and was promptly unseated by the ox, who 
evidently disapproved of the liberty, and then all the pluckier 
boys took a turn at the animal, who evinced the same decided 
objection to being ridden as he had done in the case of Chiki, 
and put them off as quickly as they mounted. 
Next we put packs on the cattle to see how they would 
comport themselves, as a preparation for the journey before us. 
As soon as they were packed and freed, however, by a succession 
of wild jumps they managed to get rid of their loads, whereby 
we learned a lesson to tie the things on more securely. It was 
rather rough on them to be tied up thus, like mummies, with 
bast and rope; but we gained our object of breaking them 
in, for, spite of all their furious jumping and bucking, the loads 
held fast, and later on in the journey, as soon as they became 
tractable, we eased them as much as possible. 
This night was spent in little sleep, for with the various dis¬ 
turbing elements of the day, we knew not exactly what to 
expect. At dawn Intuhe arrived with the guides, and as we 
were preparing to start, to our surprise Indala came up attended 
only by two of his men, his talker and the interpreter. We had 
thought to have seen the last of him, expecting that the Mom- 
bokooshus had had enough of us, but he came cheerfully up as 
