unmerciful. Leo, too, was depressed about it, but consoled himself by
triumphantly pointing out that this _She_ was undoubtedly the person
referred to in the writing on the potsherd and in his father's letter,
in proof of which he advanced Billali's allusions to her age and power.
I was by this time too overwhelmed with the whole course of events that
I had not even the heart left to dispute a proposition so absurd, so I
suggested that we should try to go out and get a bath, of which we all
stood sadly in need.

Accordingly, having indicated our wish to a middle-aged individual of
an unusually saturnine cast of countenance, even among this saturnine
people, who appeared to be deputed to look after us now that the Father
of the hamlet had departed, we started in a body--having first lit
our pipes. Outside the cave we found quite a crowd of people evidently
watching for our appearance, but when they saw us come out smoking they
vanished this way and that, calling out that we were great magicians.
Indeed, nothing about us created so great a sensation as our tobacco
smoke--not even our firearms.[*] After this we succeeded in reaching
a stream that had its source in a strong ground spring, and taking our
bath in peace, though some of the women, not excepting Ustane, showed a
decided inclination to follow us even there.

[*] We found tobacco growing in this country as it does in
every other part of Africa, and, although they were so
absolutely ignorant of its other blessed qualities, the
Amahagger use it habitually in the form of snuff and also
for medicinal purposes.--L. H. H.

By the time that we had finished this most refreshing bath the sun was
setting; indeed, when we got back to the big cave it had already set.