.

This arrangement he came to the more readily that he was short of
provisions, and Kambira told him that a particular part of the country
near the shores of a lake not far distant abounded with game of all
sorts.

To Disco Lillihammer he explained his plans next day, while that worthy,
seated under the shade of a banyan-tree, was busily engaged with what he
styled his "mornin' dooties"--namely, the filling and smoking of his
cutty-pipe.

"You see, Disco," he said, "it won't do to knock up the men with
continuous travel, therefore I shall give them a spell of rest here.
Kambira tells me that there is plenty of game, large and small, to be
had not far off, so that we shall be able to replenish our stock of meat
and perchance give the niggers a feast such as they have not been
accustomed to of late, for it is not too much to expect that our rifles
will do more execution, at all events among lions and elephants, than
native spears. Besides, I wish to see something of the people, who,
being what we may call pure out-and-out savages--"

"Savages!" interrupted Disco, removing his pipe, and pointing with the
stem of it to the village on an eminence at the outskirts of which they
were seated; "d'ee call them folk savages?"

Harold looked at the scene before him, and paused for a few moments; and
well he might, for not fifty yards off the blacksmith was plying his
work energetically, while a lad sat literally _between_ a pair of native
bellows, one of which he blew with his left hand, the other with his
right and, beyond these, groups of men and women wrought at their
primitive looms or tilled their vegetable gardens and patches of land.

"Savages!" repeated Disco, still pointing to the village with the stem
of his pipe, and gazing earnestly at his companion, "humph!"

It is probable that Disco might have said more, but he was an accurate
judge of the precise moment when a pipe is about to go out, and delay
will prove fatal. He therefore applied himself diligently to suck and
cherish the dying spark. Having revived its powers to such an extent
that clouds enveloped his visage, and his nose, being red, loomed
luridly through them, he removed the pipe, and again said, "Humph! They
ain't a bit more savages, sir, than you or me is."

"Perhaps not," replied Harold. "To say truth, it would be difficult to
point out any peculiarity that justifies the name, except the fact that
they wear very little clothing, and neither