reviously scolded for falling.

Here we met with the bamboo as thick as a man's arm, and many new trees.
Others, which we had lost sight of since leaving Shinte, now reappeared;
but nothing struck us more than the comparative scragginess of the
trees in this hollow. Those on the high lands we had left were tall
and straight; here they were stunted, and not by any means so closely
planted together. The only way I could account for this was by
supposing, as the trees were of different species, that the greater
altitude suited the nature of those above better than the lower altitude
did the other species below.

SUNDAY, APRIL 2D. We rested beside a small stream, and our hunger being
now very severe, from having lived on manioc alone since leaving Ionza
Panza's, we slaughtered one of our four remaining oxen. The people of
this district seem to feel the craving for animal food as much as we
did, for they spend much energy in digging large white larvae out of the
damp soil adjacent to their streams, and use them as a relish to their
vegetable diet. The Bashinje refused to sell any food for the poor old
ornaments my men had now to offer. We could get neither meal nor manioc,
but should have been comfortable had not the Bashinje chief Sansawe
pestered us for the customary present. The native traders informed us
that a display of force was often necessary before they could pass this
man.

Sansawe, the chief of a portion of the Bashinje, having sent the usual
formal demand for a man, an ox, or a tusk, spoke very contemptuously of
the poor things we offered him instead. We told his messengers that the
tusks were Sekeletu's: every thing was gone except my instruments, which
could be of no use to them whatever. One of them begged some meat, and,
when it was refused, said to my men, "You may as well give it, for we
shall take all after we have killed you to-morrow." The more humbly we
spoke, the more insolent the Bashinje became, till at last we were all
feeling savage and sulky, but continued to speak as civilly as we could.
They are fond of argument, and when I denied their right to demand
tribute from a white man, who did not trade in slaves, an old
white-headed negro put rather a posing question: "You know that God has
placed chiefs among us whom we ought to support. How is it that you, who
have a book that tells you about him, do not come forward at once to pay
this chief tribute like every one else?" I replied by asking, "How