dants, at length set out.

On approaching a considerable village, about six hundred
strangely-dressed men rushed out with lances and shields, screaming and
yelling as if about to attack them. His men cried out: "Fire. There is
a fight! there is a fight!"

He felt assured that it was a mere parade. The warriors were dressed
either in leopard or white monkey-skins, with cows' tails strapped on
behind, and two antelope horns fixed on their heads, while their chins
were ornamented with false beards made of the bushy ends of cows' tails.

These demon-like savages came round them, gesticulating and yelling,
pretending to attack them with spears and shields, and then engaged in
sham fights with each other.

Mr Baker, however, soon got rid of his satanic escort. Poor Mrs Baker
was naturally alarmed, fearing that it was the intention of the king to
waylay them and perhaps carry her off.

Soon after this, while crossing the Kafue river, the heat being
excessive, what was Mr Baker's horror to see his wife sink from her ox
as though shot dead. He, with his attendants, carried her through the
yielding vegetation, up to their waists in water, above which they could
just keep her head, till they reached the banks. He then laid her under
a tree, and now discovered that she had received a _coup de soleil_. As
there was nothing to eat on the spot, it was absolutely necessary to
move on. A litter was procured, on which Mrs Baker was carried, her
husband mechanically following by its side. For seven days continuously
he thus proceeded on his journey. Her eyes at length opened, but, to
his infinite grief, he found that she was attacked by a brain fever.

One evening they reached a village. She was in violent convulsions. He
believed all was over, and, while he sank down insensible by her side,
his men went out to seek for a spot to dig her grave. On awakening, all
hope having abandoned him, as he gazed at her countenance her chest
gently heaved; she was asleep. When at a sudden noise she opened her
eyes, they were calm and clear: she was saved.

Having rested for a couple of days, they continued their course, Mrs
Baker being carried on her litter. At length they reached the village
of Parkani. To his joy, as he gazed at some lofty mountains, he was
told that they formed the western side of the Luta Nzige, and that the
lake was actually within a march of the village. Their guide announced
that if they started early in