, had
run from south to north, or _vice versa_. Or rather, to be honest, it
was the observant Hans who made this discovery from various indications
which had escaped my notice. I need not stop to detail them, but one
of these was that at certain places the water-holes on a high, rather
barren land had been dug out, and in one or more instances, lined with
stones after the fashion of an ancient well. Evidently we were following
an old trade route made, perhaps, in forgotten ages when Africa was more
civilised than it is now.

Passing over certain high, misty lands during the third week of our
trek, where frequently at this season of the year the sun never showed
itself before ten o'clock and disappeared at three or four in the
afternoon, and where twice we were held up for two whole days by dense
fog, we came across a queer nomadic people who seemed to live in movable
grass huts and to keep great herds of goats and long-tailed sheep.

These folk ran away from us at first, but when they found that we did
them no harm, became friendly and brought us offerings of milk, also of
a kind of slug or caterpillar which they seemed to eat. Hans, who was
a great master of different native dialects, discovered a tongue, or a
mixture of tongues, in which he could make himself understood to some of
them.

They told him that in their day they had never seen a white man,
although their fathers' fathers (an expression by which they meant their
remote ancestors) had known many of them. They added, however, that if
we went on steadily towards the north for another seven days' journey,
we should come to a place where a white man lived, one, they had heard,
who had a long beard and killed animals with guns, as we did.

Encouraged by this intelligence we pushed forward, now travelling down
hill out of the mists into a more genial country. Indeed, the veld
here was beautiful, high, rolling plains like those of the East African
plateau, covered with a deep and fertile chocolate-coloured soil, as
we could see where the rains had washed out dongas. The climate, too,
seemed to be cool and very healthful. Altogether it was a pity to see
such lands lying idle and tenanted only by countless herds of game, for
there were not any native inhabitants, or at least we met none.

On we trekked, our road still sloping slightly down hill, till at length
we saw far away a vast sea of bush-veld which, as I guessed correctly,
must fringe the great Zambesi Ri