But Mashauana, Fearing Lest We Might Wander,
Asked Leave To Give His Own Cloth, And When The Guides Saw That,
They Came Forward Shouting "Averie, Averie!"
In the afternoon of this day we came to a valley about a mile wide,
filled with clear, fast-flowing water.
The men on foot were chin deep
in crossing, and we three on ox-back got wet to the middle,
the weight of the animals preventing them from swimming.
A thunder-shower descending completed the partial drenching of the plain,
and gave a cold, uncomfortable "packing in a wet blanket" that night.
Next day we found another flooded valley about half a mile wide,
with a small and now deep rivulet in its middle, flowing rapidly
to the S.S.E., or toward the Kasai. The middle part of this flood,
being the bed of what at other times is the rivulet, was so rapid
that we crossed by holding on to the oxen, and the current soon dashed them
to the opposite bank; we then jumped off, and, the oxen being
relieved of their burdens, we could pull them on to the shallower part.
The rest of the valley was thigh deep and boggy, but holding on
by the belt which fastened the blanket to the ox, we each floundered
through the nasty slough as well as we could. These boggy parts,
lying parallel to the stream, were the most extensive we had come to:
those mentioned already were mere circumscribed patches; these extended
for miles along each bank; but even here, though the rapidity of the current
was very considerable, the thick sward of grass was "laid" flat
along the sides of the stream, and the soil was not abraded so much
as to discolor the flood. When we came to the opposite side of this valley,
some pieces of the ferruginous conglomerate, which forms the capping
to all other rocks in a large district around and north of this, cropped out,
and the oxen bit at them as if surprised by the appearance of stone as much
as we were; or it may have contained some mineral of which they stood in need.
We had not met with a stone since leaving Shinte's. The country is covered
with deep alluvial soil of a dark color and very fertile.
In the afternoon we came to another stream, nyuana Loke (or child of Loke),
with a bridge over it. The men had to swim off to each end of the bridge,
and when on it were breast deep; some preferred holding on
by the tails of the oxen the whole way across. I intended to do this too;
but, riding to the deep part, before I could dismount and seize the helm
the ox dashed off with his companions, and his body sank so deep
that I failed in my attempt even to catch the blanket belt,
and if I pulled the bridle the ox seemed as if he would come backward upon me,
so I struck out for the opposite bank alone.
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