From the scarcity of the population, I had
great difficulty in finding anybody to procure me a drink of milk,
and when I at last discovered a woman and two children, she was so
thunderstruck that, catching up one of her offspring in her arms and
shrieking to another to follow her, like a hen and chickens swooped at
by a hawk, away they went as fast as their legs would carry them. As
this was no satisfaction to me, however productive it might be of
milk to the baby, I began to make signs of bringing down the family
mansion that short distance required to raze it to the ground, and
thus succeeded in calling forth from its interior a half-naked old
gentleman out of his study to my assistance.
He, however, in an abject way informed me that he had no milk himself,
but would introduce me to a friend who had. I accordingly followed
him, "at the point of the stick," until we reached another mud hovel,
where we found the lady of the house sitting in her porch working,
and a supercilious-looking gentleman reclining at her side.
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