he first white man they ever had an opportunity of seeing;
but Sekelenke himself did not come near. We heard he was offended with
some of his people for letting me know he was among the company. He
said that I should be displeased with him for not coming and making
some present. This was the only instance in which I was shunned in this
quarter.

As it would have been impolitic to pass Manenko, or any chief, without
at least showing so much respect as to call and explain the objects
of our passing through the country, we waited two entire days for the
return of the messengers to Manenko; and as I could not hurry matters, I
went into the adjacent country to search for meat for the camp.

The country is furnished largely with forest, having occasionally open
lawns covered with grass, not in tufts as in the south, but so closely
planted that one can not see the soil. We came upon a man and his two
wives and children, burning coarse rushes and the stalks of tsitla,
growing in a brackish marsh, in order to extract a kind of salt from the
ashes. They make a funnel of branches of trees, and line it with grass
rope, twisted round until it is, as it were, a beehive-roof inverted.
The ashes are put into water, in a calabash, and then it is allowed to
percolate through the small hole in the bottom and through the grass.
When this water is evaporated in the sun, it yields sufficient salt to
form a relish with food. The women and children fled with precipitation,
but we sat down at a distance, and allowed the man time to gain courage
enough to speak. He, however, trembled excessively at the apparition
before him; but when we explained that our object was to hunt game, and
not men, he became calm, and called back his wives. We soon afterward
came to another party on the same errand with ourselves. The man had a
bow about six feet long, and iron-headed arrows about thirty inches in
length; he had also wooden arrows neatly barbed, to shoot in cases
where he might not be quite certain of recovering them again. We soon
afterward got a zebra, and gave our hunting acquaintances such a liberal
share that we soon became friends. All whom we saw that day then came
with us to the encampment to beg a little meat; and as they have so
little salt, I have no doubt they felt grateful for what we gave.

Sekelenke and his people, twenty-four in number, defiled past our camp
carrying large bundles of dried elephants' meat. Most of them came to
say go