THE OATH We spent three more days at that place.

First it was necessary to allow time to elapse before the gases which generated in their great bodies caused those of the sea-cows which had been killed in the water, to float.

Then they must be skinned and their thick hides cut into strips and pieces to be traded for _sjamboks_ or to make small native shields for which some of the East Coast tribes will pay heavily.
All this took a long while, during which I amused, or disgusted myself in watching those river natives devouring the flesh of the beasts.
The lean, what there was of it, they dried and smoked into a kind of "biltong," but a great deal of the fat they ate at once.

I had the curiosity to weigh a lump which was given to one thin, hungry-looking fellow.

It scaled quite twenty pounds.