Nevertheless, Susi and Chuma took up their precious burden, and, looking to
Livingstone's God for help, began the most remarkable funeral march on
record. They followed the track their master had marked with his footsteps
when he penetrated to Lake Bangweolo, passing to the south of Lake Lumbi,
which is a continuation of Tanganyika, then crossing to Unyanyembe, where
it was found out that they were carrying a dead body. Shelter was hard to
get, or even food; and at Kasekera they could get nothing for which they
asked, except on condition that they would bury the remains they were
carrying.
Now indeed their love and generalship were put to a new test. But again
they were equal to the emergency. They made up another package like the
precious burden, only it contained branches instead of human bones; and
this, with mock solemnity, they bore on their shoulders to a safe distance,
scattered the contents far and wide in the brushwood, and came back without
the bundle. Meanwhile others of their party had repacked the remains,
doubling them up into the semblance of a bale of cotton cloth, and so they
once more managed to procure what they needed and go on with their charge.
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