CuAP. 11. THE COMMI TllICE. 15 



ceros) or a troop of antelopes, grazing by a wood- 

 side in the distance, remind one, for tlie moment, 

 of the cattle and deer of more culti\ated scenes. But 

 as the dry season continues, the grass dries up or 

 beccmes burnt, and the country then wears a more 

 desolate aspect : the sky is generally overcast. In- 

 numerable flocks of marabouts come to lay their eggs 

 on the prairies; the prodigious number oi" these birds 

 and their sudden appearance are quite astounding. 

 In the wet season the numerous pools and marshy 

 places afford another attraction, for they teem with 

 life ; and I used to notice, especially, the quantity of 

 eel-like fishes which appeared in a mysterious manner 

 almost as soon as the pools began to form, they 

 having no doubt buried themselves in the mud and 

 passed the dry season in a dormant state. Flocks of 

 sand-pipers trot along the sandy margins of the rivers 

 and pools, and numbers of gulls, terns, shear-waters, 

 and pelicans enliven the scene with their movements 

 and their cries. The plain along the banks of the 

 river is dotted with villages of the great Commi tribe 

 of negroes, whose plantalions, however, are on the 

 opposite wooded side of the Fernand Vaz, and also 

 along the banks of the Npoulounay channel, as the 

 sandy soil of the plain is unfitted for bananas, sugar- 

 cane, and otiier cultivated plants and trees. Each 

 village is under the patriarchal government of its 

 hereditary chief, and all are nominally subject to the 

 king of the tribe residing at Aniambie, formerly a 

 large village on the sea-sliore near Cape St. Cathe- 

 rine, but now reduced to a few dilapidated huts. 

 The king li\es on his plantation. 



