1907.] on Across Widest Africa. 737 



noticeable in many of their words, borrowed from meteorological 

 phenomena or from the botanical world. Beard, for instance, 

 mainguengova^ is nothing less when translated literally than "rain 

 from the chin." The hand, ^^^^e'^e, is the "leaf of the arm " (^e, 

 leaf ; he^ arm). A finger nail, sissi ouil insaga {sissi, bark ; ouil 

 insaga, finger), means literally the "bark of one's finger." The 

 foot, ppe'ndoue', is the " leaf of the leg." Perhaps the most remark- 

 able of all is the word, cle'goude ; meaning girl, but which translated 

 literally means : de, woman ; goude, boy — or, a " woman boy." They 

 are almost as immoderate as we are in speaking of their sensations, 

 nothing short of death being sufficient to describe love or drunken- 

 ness. Kpi na gnamou^ " to die of love " : Iqn na loda, " to die of 

 beer." Astronomy is perhaps not the strongest point of the A-sandeh. 

 The stars in their language, care'conrou, are the " enemies of the sun " 

 {care\ enemy). Numerals are counted, as usual with almost all 

 African tribes, with the aid of their fingers up to five : ssa 1, ioue 2, 

 l)ia'tc(, 8, hiama 4, bissoue 5. Six, bati ssa, being "give one from the 

 other hand " ; seven, bati ioue, " give two from the other hand," and 

 so on. The fingers of the hands being exhausted, the feet come to 

 the assistance. Therefore eleven is ba'ti sande'yo ssa (or " give 

 one from the ground," meaning the foot.) Sixteen is, cobain ssa, 

 or " one from the other side " (the other foot). Beyond twenty 

 the fingers and toes of neighbours are required : forty-one being two 

 men and one finger ; sixty-two, three men and two fingers, etc. 



My object in crossing the forest was to reach the Mbomu river in 

 the land of one of the great Sultans of Central Africa, the Sultanate 

 of Zemio. This part of the journey was fatiguing, as all my men 

 except the faithful Somali had abandoned me, and we two had 

 a good deal of trouble to convey the caravan through the forest. 

 The rainy season had by now come in full force, and added to 

 the discomfort. My animals were dying fast, and those few that 

 remained had to carry the heavy loads of the animals lost. The heat 

 was stifling, the exertion great. We had to pack the loads upon 

 the animals dozens of times a day, as in forcing our way through the 

 forest the loads were constantly getting undone and tumbling off. We 

 were marching all the time on swampy ground, with torrents of rain 

 drenching everything, and vines and thorns and entangled roots of 

 trees twisting and catching and wounding our feet. The poor Somali 

 and I contracted fever. After one month of strain, we arrived at 

 Zemio upon the Mbomu river, having succeeded in bringing over 

 all the baggage. I cannot speak too highly of the faithfulness of 

 the poor Somali who accompanied me. When we arrived, my 

 original caravan of some thirty animals was reduced to three or four 

 donkeys. Having rested two days I again became in good health, 

 and was able to proceed westwards. 



There are a great number of tribes, mostly of cannibals, along 

 the Mbomu and Ubanghi rivers. I paid visits to the big Sultans 

 YOL. XYIII. (No. 101) 3 B 



