"The natives have a superstition that any one who sleeps beneath this stone will die in a short time. The belief probably arose from some one having been killed by the fall of a fragment from the lower surface. Several large pieces are partly detached, and a very slight disturbance would cause them to tumble to the ground.
"The measurement of this wonderful stone is as follows:
| Ft. | In. | |
| Length of slab | 45 | 4 |
| Breadth of slab | 45 | 8 |
| Thickness from above to below | 4 | 9 |
| Height from ground | 10 | 5 |
| Diameter of clay pedestal | 23 | 0 |
"The same formation of rock as the one above described can be seen at Monument Creek, in the neighborhood of Manitou, Colorado. When the earth beneath the slab is partly worn away the stone protects it from the weather, and thus these natural tables are formed. The pedestals of the Manitou table-rocks are formed of a coarse sandstone, while the tables are of mica schist. Both of them are subject to the action of the elements, and since the country has been known to the white man there has been a considerable disintegration of the rocks. Some of them are quite large, but I never heard of one equalling that at Regiaff."
[CHAPTER XIV.]
ARRIVAL AT FATIKO.—THE MARCH CONTINUED.—FRANK'S ANTELOPE HUNT.
While the party was in camp, waiting for the order to move, the conversation naturally turned on previous experiences of travellers in the same region.
Abdul said the Shoolis were generally regarded as a friendly race. They usually treated travellers kindly, and welcomed the peaceable merchant who brought goods to exchange for ivory. They had suffered frequently from the raids of slave-dealers, and their occasional hostility to strangers arose from this fact.