tea ; cobbling our boots and overhauling our clothes,
and nursing four fever patients, for there had been
two days of chilly drizzling rain, the inevitable result
of which was fever for some of our party. The post
station lay about one mile from our camping-ground;
the two huts where the B.S.A. men lived were situated
on a rocky kopje full of caves, in one of which
their horse was stabled, and from the top of the rock
an extensive view was gained over the high plateau,
well wooded just here and studded with rocks of
fantastic shape. Here and there thick volumes of
smoke rose from the grass fires common all over the
country at this season of the year, which looked for
all the world like distant manufacturing towns, and
suggested the comparison of a view from a spur of
the Derbyshire hills over the plain of Cheshire, with
Stockport, Manchester, and other centres of industry
belching forth their dense volumes of smoke.
On August 14 we started on our journey. It was
a lovely morning, and our progress was very slow, for
our cavalcade was so heterogeneous—my wife and
I on horseback, Messrs. Swan and King with a horse
between them, three white men to look after the
donkeys, and Mashah and his Makalangas to carry
what the donkeys could not. We straggled terribly
at first, for the donkeys were obstinate and their pack-
saddles unsteady, the natives were fresh and anxious
to get along, so we had to call for frequent halts to
readjust ourselves, which gave us ample opportunity
for looking around. The country here is sown
broadcast with strange granite rocks; one group had
formed themselves into an extraordinary doorway,
two columns on either side about sixty feet high, with
a gigantic boulder resting on the top of them for the
lintel. Like the structures of a giant race, these strange
rocks rise out of the thick vegetation
in all directions. Presently,
as we were experiencing
some little difficulty in" getting
our raw cavalcade across a
stream, a Makalanga joined us
who had been born without
hands. To his left stump had
been attached, by means of a
leather thong, the claw of a
b ird ; with the assistance of
this he ate some food we gave
him with marvellous dexterity,
and fired his gun. He was a
bright cheery individual, evidently
greatly respected by his
more gifted comrades.
We only accomplished seven
miles this first day, owing to
the difficulties of progression, 0HIBF,S IR0N
and in the afternoon found our- s c e p t r e
- 3 J XEBT LONG selves encamped by a wretched
village called Chekatu. Here they had no cattle
and no milk to sell us owing to Matabele raids. The
chief, Matzaire by name, came to visit us with his iron
sceptre in his hand, which made us think of the rods
of iron with which certain Israelitish kings are stated