80 STAET FOR THE INTERIOR. Chap. IV. 



negroes have a special name for a season of this sort, 

 caUing it enomo onguero; it lasts five months, and 

 they assure me that it always comes after a long 

 series of dry seasons of the usual length. We have 

 had a few showers, but they have produced no im- 

 pression. The effect of the tide is perceived as far 

 as the junction of the Niembai, at least at this time 

 of the year (the dry season) ; above this point the 

 current of the Ovenga is too strong to allow it to 

 pass further. I took here only one meridian alti- 

 tude of Fomalhaut, and have fixed the latitude by 

 computation of my dead reckoning. 



Next day we proceeded up stream. The Ovenga 

 was very low, about twenty feet below the high-water 

 mark of the rainy season ; the current was generally 

 three miles an hour, but, in some places, four miles ; 

 it was encumbered with fallen trees, and our journey 

 was difficult and slow. 



A little before reaching the village of Obindji we 

 found an obstacle in the way of our further progress. 

 The Bakalai had made a fence across the river to 

 bar the passage, leaving only a gap near the shore 

 for small canoes to pass. This had been done on 

 account of some petty trade-quarrel which the people 

 of this tribe had had with their neighbours. Nothing 

 could have happened more offensive to the pride of 

 Quengueza than the erection of this bar without his 

 having been consulted — he, the king of the Rembo 

 (river), travelling in company with his ntanganil 

 It made him appear as though he had no authority. 

 As soon as he saw the obstacle his face changed 

 colour, and, getting up in a violent rage, he called 



