time it was before we could persuade Kahwa to put her head above
water and look about her. Our eyes and throats were horribly sore, but
otherwise none of us was hurt. But though we were alive, life did not
look very bright for us. Where should we go? That was the first
question. And what should we find to eat in all this smoking
wilderness? While we sat in the middle of the pool wondering what we
could do or whether it would be safe to do anything, we saw Grey Wolf
start to go away. He climbed out on the bank while his wife sat in the
water and watched him. He got out safely, and then put his nose down to
snuff at the ground. The instant his nose touched the earth he gave a
yelp, and plunged back into the water again. He had burnt the tip of his
nose, for the ground was baking hot, as we soon discovered for
ourselves. When we first stepped out on shore, our feet were so wet that
we did not feel the heat, but in a few seconds they began to dry, and
then the sooner we scrambled back into the water again, the better.

How long it would have taken the earth to cool again I do not know. It
was covered with a layer of burned stuff, ashes, and charred wood, which
everywhere continued smouldering underneath, and all through the morning
of the next day little spirals of smoke were rising from the ground in
every direction. Fortunately, at mid-day came a thunderstorm which
lasted well on towards evening, and when the rain stopped the ground had
ceased smoking. Many of the trees still smouldered and burned inside.
Sometimes the flame would eat its way out again to the surface, so that
the tree would go on burning in the middle of the wet forest until it
was consumed; and for days afterwards, on scratching away the stuff on
the surface, we would come to a layer of half burned sticks that was
still too hot to touch.

We of course kept to the stream. There along the edges we found food,
for the rushes and grass and plants of all kinds had burned to the
water-line, but below that the stems and roots remained fresh and good.
But it was impossible to avoid getting the black dust into one's nose
and mouth, and our throats and nostrils were still full of the smell of
the smoke. No amount of water would wash it out. The effect of the
thunderstorm soon passed off, and by the next day everything was as dry
as ever, and the least puff of wind filled the air with clouds of black
powder which made us sneeze, and, getting into our eyes, kept the