in
travelling and hardships; you must act as our chiefs, and we will
promise to obey whatever you order us to do." Susi and Chuma accordingly
took the command, and carried out an exploit which is unique in all the
history of exploration.

First of all a hut was erected at some little distance from the village,
and in this they placed the body to prepare it for the long journey. The
heart and viscera were removed, placed in a tin box, and reverently
buried in the ground, one of Livingstone's Christian servants reading
the Funeral Service. The body was then filled with salt and exposed for
fourteen days to the sun in order to dry and thus be preserved from
decay. The legs were bent back to make the package shorter, and the body
was sewed up tightly in cotton. A cylinder of bark was cut from a tree
and in this the body was enclosed. Round the whole a piece of canvas
was bound, and the package was tied to a pole for convenience of
carrying. On a tree near, Livingstone's name was cut and the date of his
death, and Chitambo was asked to have the grass rooted up round the tree
so that it should not at any time be destroyed by a bush fire.

When all was ready two men lifted the precious burden from the ground,
the others took their loads on their backs, and a journey was commenced
which was to last nine months, a funeral procession the like of which
the world had never seen before. The route ran sometimes through
friendly, sometimes through hostile tribes. Once they had to fight in
order to force their way through. News of the great missionary's death
had preceded them. Like a grass fire on the prairie it spread over
Africa from coast to coast, creeping silently through the forests. In
some districts the people ran away from fear of the sad procession,
while in others they came up to see it. Bread-fruit trees stretched
their boughs over the road like a canopy over a victor returning home,
and palms, the emblems of peace and resurrection, stood as sentinels by
the way, which was left clear by the wild animals of the forest. And
mile after mile the party marched eastwards under the green arches.

In Tabora they met an English expedition sent out too late for the
relief of Livingstone, and its members listened with emotion to the tale
of the men. They wished to bury the corpse at Tabora, but Livingstone's
servants would not hear of it. A few days later they met with serious
opposition. A tribe refused to let them pass with a cor