ten o’clock
Or rather , to be honest , it was the observant Hans who made this discovery from various indications which had escaped my notice . I need not stop to detail them , but one of these was that at certain places the water-holes on a high , rather barren land had been dug out , and in one or more instances , lined with stones after the fashion of an ancient well . Evidently we were following an old trade route made , perhaps , in forgotten ages when Africa was more civilised than it is now . Passing over certain high , misty lands during the third week of our trek , where frequently at this season of the year the sun never showed itself before ten o'clock and disappeared at three or four in the afternoon , and where twice we were held up for two whole days by dense fog , we came across a queer nomadic people who seemed to live in movable grass huts and to keep great herds of goats and long-tailed sheep . These folk ran away from us at first , but when they found that we did them no harm , became friendly and brought us offerings of milk , also of a kind of slug or caterpillar which they seemed to eat . Hans , who was a great master of different native dialects , discovered a tongue , or a mixture of tongues , in which he could make himself understood to some of them . They told him that in their day they had never seen a white man , although their fathers ' fathers -LRB- an expression by which they meant their remote ancestors -RRB- had known many of them .