How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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Confidence Returned To All Hearts - For Now, As Mabruk
Unyanyembe Said, "We Could Smell The Fish Of The Tanganika."
Unyanyembe, With All Its Disquietude, Was Far Behind.
We could
snap our fingers at that terrible Mirambo and his unscrupulous
followers, and by-and-by, perhaps, we may be able to laugh at
the timid seer who always prophesied portentous events - Sheikh,
the son of Nasib.
We laughed joyously, as we glided in Indian
file through the young forest jungle beyond the clearing of Mrera,
and boasted of our prowess. Oh! we were truly brave that morning!
Emerging from the jungle, we entered a thin forest, where numerous
ant-hills were seen like so many sand-dunes. I imagine that these
ant-hills were formed during a remarkably wet season, when,
possibly, the forest-clad plain was inundated. I have seen the
ants at work by thousands, engaged in the work of erecting their
hills in other districts suffering from inundation. What a
wonderful system of cells these tiny insects construct! A perfect
labyrinth - cell within cell, room within room, hall within hall - an
exhibition of engineering talents and high architectural capacity - a
model city, cunningly contrived for safety and comfort!
Emerging after a short hour's march out of the forest, we welcome
the sight of a murmuring translucent stream, swiftly flowing
towards the north-west, which we regard with the pleasure which
only men who have for a long time sickened themselves with that
potable liquid of the foulest kind, found in salinas, mbugas,
pools, and puddle holes, can realize.
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