pleasant to give a present, but that pleasure the Banyai usually deny to
strangers by making it a fine, and demanding it in such a supercilious
way, that only a sorely cowed trader could bear it. They often refuse to
touch what is offered--throw it down and leave it--sneer at the trader's
slaves, and refuse a passage until the tribute is raised to the utmost
extent of his means.

Leaving the steamer next morning, we proceeded on foot, accompanied by a
native Portuguese and his men and a dozen Makololo, who carried our
baggage. The morning was pleasant, the hills on our right furnished for
a time a delightful shade; but before long the path grew frightfully
rough, and the hills no longer shielded us from the blazing sun. Scarcely
a vestige of a track was now visible; and, indeed, had not our guide
assured us to the contrary, we should have been innocent of even the
suspicion of a way along the patches of soft yielding sand, and on the
great rocks over which we so painfully clambered. These rocks have a
singular appearance, from being dislocated and twisted in every
direction, and covered with a thin black glaze, as if highly polished and
coated with lamp-black varnish. This seems to have been deposited while
the river was in flood, for it covers only those rocks which lie between
the highest water-mark and a line about four feet above the lowest.
Travellers who have visited the rapids of the Orinoco and the Congo say
that the rocks there have a similar appearance, and it is attributed to
some deposit from the water, formed only when the current is strong. This
may account for it in part here, as it prevails only where the narrow
river is confined between masses of rock, backed by high hills, and where
the current in floods is known to be the strongest; and it does not exist
where the rocks are only on one side, with a sandy beach opposite, and a
broad expanse of river between. The hot rocks burnt the thick soles of
our men's feet, and sorely fatigued ourselves. Our first day's march did