A MEAL OF ANTS 
361 
Often the road led us a short distance away from the flexures 
in the river, but never to such a distance that it was too far to 
send for water from where we camped. On November 25th, we 
slept at the kraal of a Mosarwa (Bushman) called Manara, who for 
one of his race was really an opulent individual. He possessed 
goats and fields of corn, the latter at this time of the year in a 
hopeless condition of stubble, yet harbouring many guinea-fowl 
that supplied us with several grateful meals. 
Along the Zouga we found several villages of men calling 
themselves Makuba, which we in this instance understood to 
be merely a definition of men living in the reeds, as they did 
not particularly remind us of our giant friends on the upper 
Cubango and Chobe by any excessive stature, although there 
was a certain family resemblance in feature amongst all the 
tribes of the reeds. These men came begging for tobacco with 
great eagerness, and showed much appreciation for the little 
gifts of this rather scarce article that we made them. 
While skirmishing along the river early one morning in 
search of game, for as usual our supplies of meat were short, 
the limited quantity of corn we had brought from the lake 
with us was exhausted, and we were also disappointed in re¬ 
plenishing our stock from the natives living along the road— 
all facts responsible for empty stomachs—I espied a Makuba girl 
wandering in my direction, carrying an inviting-looking dish on 
her head. She had not seen me, so I quietly slipped behind the 
trunk of a tree standing by the path she had to pass, and as she 
came abreast of me I stepped out. Her surprise and consterna¬ 
tion were so great that she simply sat down on the ground, with 
horror marked in every feature of her face, too scared even to 
scream. With the best conciliatory manner at my disposal I 
gave her to understand that it was only food I was in search of, 
by pointing to the dish, which was well filled with a yellow-brown¬ 
looking boiled substance resembling porridge, very inviting to 
my hungry eyes. As soon as she understood my meaning she 
gladly pushed it towards me. We always went provided with 
a couple of coloured handkerchiefs on the chance of bartering 
