CHAPTER XIII "AHAI OW MAZADA!"

Our coming was awaited down-river at Kwoin with considerable interest. The news of our mission had spread far and wide, and there was a small party already assembled. As we neared them a snake caused a sensation on board.

Probably caught up and whipped inboard by the stern wheel, it made for the deepest retreat it could find, and slid into the stokehole at one side while the stoker, who was fireman to Gordon, found it convenient to ascend just as expeditiously on the other. Owing to the heat, the infernal regions proved unpopular with the prototype of Satan, even as a temporary home, and, crossing the deck, it slithered away through the water, mid the curses of the crew, toward the bank where stood Adam and Eve.

Cattle rested under the deleb palms, whose golden, scented, but unfortunately stringy fruit was brought on board to us ; dhurra was landed, and the well-worn process of bargaining was renewed, the price being generally four sacks of dhurra to the ox. A specially fine one would command 265