Page:Two kings of Uganda.djvu/34

10 A PRAIRIE FIRE. On a beaten track or footpath, some eighteen inches or two feet wide. Footpaths of this kind wind on from village to village, and connect tribe with tribe, so that the traveller finds the way clearly marked and well-defined throughout the whole of this wide region. The first few marches were not examples of successful African travelling; frequently we were up and off with our anything to eat; often we had to wait for hours after reaching our camp until our tents came up, and before the cooks could prepare any kind of dinner, another couple of hours had usually passed away. On one occasion we were twenty-four hours without a meal, a specimen of the blunders which inexperienced travellers make, and sometimes with fatal results, of which the African climate is made to bear the blame, rather than the travellers' carelessness. Nor did matters seem to improve as we advanced, the fact being that there were far too many of us for comfortable travelling. While making the first stage of our journey through. Useguha, we were fairly well supplied with native food unripe bananas boiled and mashed, beans, sweet potatoes, rice, and the invariable fowls and goats. One day, while enjoying this fare in our dining‐tent, we saw to our consternation that the grass to leeward* of us had been set alight by the natives, and soon a glorious line of fire came sweeping up towards where we were

• I believe it to be a fact, that except in case of a very high wind, an African prairie fire will come up against the breeze rather

than with it as might be expected.