Sandani informed me that by noon on the following day
we should arrive at a town ruled by a headman (enduna)
of ITegomo, and that it was probable that the chief would
give me boys. He indicated the probable time of our
arrival by pointing vertically towards the sky, showing the
position of the sun, whose path across the heavens he
graduated with considerable accuracy, an accomplishment
which was peculiarly well manifested among the natives
generally: they would in this way rapidly indicate any
particular time of the day.
During the night a hyena came very close to the skerm.
The brute had evidently sniffed the odour of the frugal
evening meal, and in our small assemblage his appearance
caused quite a thrill of excitement.
Lovely weather prevailed. The nights were not hot,
neither were they cold, although a chill was apt to be felt
in the morning, especially when the camp was pitched on
the bank of a river or near a swamp.
The sun had hardly peeped above the tops of the trees
when we were again on the move, without making any
deviation from our course of the previous day. The-old
guide led us through dismal-looking stretches of morass and
belts of woodland and plain until we crossed the Waynge
river, the same water we had encamped upon higher up,
when eventful times were upon us.
When the sun had almost touched meridian we were still
holding on our course. Towering in front of us were the
great rocks which we had gazed at from the distant west.
The old man said that close by was an outlying village,
and that the chiefs headquarters were at least a mile beyond.
Gazing upwards towards the rocks, which stood out clear
against an almost steel-blue sky, we could distinguish the
heads of many men, also the naked figures of children.
They had seeu us moving slowly along i^ie winding
footpath beneath, and again and again they shouted to us
from their coigne of vantage,- than which I could not conceive
of a finer position for a town or a stronghold, offering
safety to a small tribe.
Determined not to be led into a trap like the last one,
and showing that I had profited by former experience, I
now positively refused to go any farther. Sandani here
turned the tables upon me, proving himself to be a “ dark
horse.” He said that with him all was right.
Numbers of men, armed with assegais and knobkerries,
came running down the steep pathway to meet us. I was
glad to find that Sandani had spoken the truth in the old
camp. The people evidently knew him. Doubtless the
sad reprobate had another wife stowed away amidst these
cheerless rocks.
The news of our arrival must have spread like forked
lightning. For no sooner had we ascended the mountain
than we were surrounded by crowds of the descendants of
TTpim, of all sizes and ages, from the crowing infant in
arms to the mumified savage who might be marching along
with the century. One and all seemed very friendly, but
they were much impressed with the novelty of my colour.
We halted in a grotto of rock. Sandani, after accepting
snuff from the surrounding sightseers, gave forth a heavily-
charged harangue, which utterly eclipsed all former orations,
and seemed to fill his audience with an intensity of admiration
at the marvellous range of his rhetorical power. Poor
Karemba was now completely silenced, for in the older man
he had found a decided rival, bursting with a greatness of
eloquence which would brook no opposition, as Karemba
himself was forced to admit.
Both Sandani and Karemba, our natural orators, were