152 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
down on the ground as he gave me a piteous tale of pre- 
vious deprivation, caused first by the Abyssinians, and 
afterwards by Ruspoli; but upon my consenting to let him 
have all his camels back, and not force him to trade, he 
produced two fine animals, and offered to sell them to me 
for eight tobes, — a bargain that was quickly settled. The 
chief said that Ruspoli had come to the river Web from 
Karanli, a village on the Webi Shebeli far to the north of 
Bari, and had then descended the Web to a point a short 
distance below Behr Madu, where we were camped. As 
this adventurer had taken everything from the natives that 
he could lay his hands on, they were not going to trust 
any men armed with rifles in the future, but had resolved 
to flee to some villages further on, where they would unite 
and fight us. 
I could not cross the Web, as the banks were too steep, 
and the water very deep, so I marched down the stream to 
Buntal, where it joins the Ganana, and where there was 
a good crossing. Dodson and I enjoyed good sport fish- 
ing, and shooting some of the numerous water-buck that 
were to be found about the river, while at the same time we 
found much to collect in the way of natural-history speci- 
mens. Here we saw for the first time the large green 
bee-eaters, MWerops superciliosus, which were very numer- 
ous, and also a tiny squirrel (Sczwrus ganana, Rhoades) 
which proved to be new to science. There was much 
deep forest along the river Web, so that the caravan road 
sometimes led a long way from the water. I now lost my 
last remaining pony, which had been too sick for me to 
ride for a long time. 
On the second march from Behr Madu, three miles 
before you reach Buntal, I passed the junction of the Web 
and the Ganana, and soon after that I observed the river 
Dawa emptying into the Ganana from the west. Although 
