* 
CHAPTER VI. 
VILLAGE LIFE IN PONGO-LAND. 
n pr next j a y was perforce a halt. For- 
teune and his wives did not appear 
till 9 A.M., when it was dead low water. 
I had lent Nimrod a double-barrelled 
gun during the march, and he was evidently 
anxious to found a claim upon the protracted 
usufruct. “ Dashes ” also had to be settled, and 
loads made up. The two women to whose un¬ 
varying kindness all my comfort had been owing, 
were made happy with satin-stripe, cassis, and the 
inevitable nicotiana. In an unguarded moment 
my soft heart was betrayed into giving a bottle 
of absinthe to the large old person who claimed 
to be Forteune’s mamma. Expecting nothing, 
had nothing been offered she would not have 
complained; the present acted upon her violently 
and deleteriously ; she was like the cabman who 
makes mauvais sang because he has asked and 
