Having now entered a country where lions were numerous, our men began to pay greater attention to the arrangements of the camp at night.  As they are accustomed to do with their chiefs, they place the white men in the centre; Kanyata, his men, and the two donkeys, camp on our right; Tuba Mokoro’s party of Bashubia are in front; Masakasa, and Sininyane’s body of Batoka, on the left; and in the rear six Tette men have their fires.  In placing their fires they are careful to put them where the smoke will not blow in our faces.  Soon after we halt, the spot for the English is selected, and all regulate their places accordingly, and deposit their burdens.  The men take it by turns to cut some of the tall dry grass, and spread it for our beds on a spot, either naturally level, or smoothed by the hoe; some, appointed to carry our bedding, then bring our rugs and karosses, and place the three rugs in a row on the grass; Dr. Livingstone’s being in the middle, Dr. Kirk’s on the right, and Charles Livingstone’s on the left.  Our bags, rifles, and revolvers are carefully placed at our heads, and a fire made near our feet.  We have no tent nor covering of any kind except the branches of the tree under which we may happen to lie; and it is a pretty sight to look up and see every branch, leaf, and twig of the tree stand out, reflected against the clear star-spangled and moonlit sky.  The stars of the first magnitude have names which convey the same meaning over very wide tracts of country.  Here when Venus comes out in the evenings, she is called Ntanda, the eldest or first-born, and Manjika, the first-born of morning, at other times:  she has so much radiance when shining alone, that she casts a shadow.  Sirius is named Kuewa usiko, “drawer of night,” because supposed to draw the whole night after it.  The moon has no evil influence in this country, so far as we know.  We have lain and looked up at her, till sweet sleep closed our eyes, unharmed.  Four or five of our men were affected with moon-blindness at Tette; though they had not slept out of doors there, they became so blind that their comrades had to guide their hands to the general dish of food; the affection is unknown in their own country.  When our posterity shall have discovered what it is which, distinct from foul smells, causes fever, and what, apart from the moon, causes men to be moon-struck, they will pity our dulness of perception.

The men cut a very small quantity of grass for themselves, and sleep in fumbas or sleeping-bags, which are double mats of palm-leaf, six feet long by four wide, and sewn together round three parts of the square, and left open only on one side.  They are used as a protection from the cold, wet, and mosquitoes, and are entered as we should get into our beds, were the blankets nailed to the top, bottom, and one side of the bedstead.