110 VISIT TO THE SAMBA NAGOSIII FALLS. Chap. V. 



whicli are five or six miles distan.t. At the little 

 Aviia village Mandji, where we passed the night, I 

 succeeded in taking the meridian altitude of a 

 Eridani, the resulting latitude being 1° IG' 26" S. 



lltli. In early morning a dense fog enveloped the 

 forests and the broad river ; we could not see the 

 opposite bank. We reached the Ovigui at ten min- 

 utes past eight a.m. On its banks we stopped at a 

 small village, the chief of which gave us a bunch of 

 plantains and a fowl, and the people sold me a 

 quantity of smoke-dried fish for my men. How we 

 enjoyed the meal after the famine of the previous 

 three days ! At half-j)ast two p.m. we arrived at 

 Dihaou ; the chief was absent fishing. 



loth. The good old chief Dihaou returned this 

 morning, and expressed unaffected delight at seeing 

 me. As usual I heard a harrowing tale of witchcraft 

 in the course of the day. Few weeks pass away in 

 these unhappy villages without something of this 

 kind happening. A poor fellow was singing a 

 mournful song, seated on the ground in the village 

 street ; and on inquiring the cause of his grief, I was 

 told that the chief of a village near his having died, 

 and the magic Doctor having declared that five 

 persons had bewitched him, the mother, sister and 

 brother of the poor mourner had just been ruthlessly 

 massacred by the excited people, and his own house 

 and plantation burnt and laid waste. 



14itlL — \^th. Delayed at Dihaou by Arangui's 

 trading affairs. Took three observations for latitude, 

 which gave the position of the village as 1° 21' 3" S. 



