86 START FOR THE INTERIOR. Chap. IV. 



the night. There was here nothing to shelter us but 

 an old shed, loosely covered with pieces of bark. I 

 wanted to roof it with fresh leaves, but we were 

 guaranteed against rain by an Ashira doctor who 

 was with us, and who blew his magic horn to drive 

 it away. In the middle of the night a shower fell 

 and almost drenched us. This did not, however, 

 discompose the doctor and his believers, for he said 

 if he had not blown his horn the rain would have 

 been much heavier. 



Quengueza was an amusing companion on a march, 

 for the oddities of his character seemed to be endless. 

 He never travelled without his fetich, which was an 

 ugly little pot-bellied image of wood, with a row 

 of four cowries embedded in its abdomen. As he 

 generally wore an old coat when he travelled with 

 me, he used to keep this dirty little thing in one of 

 the 230ckets. Waking or sleeping the fetich was 

 never suffered to be away from him. Whenever he 

 ate or drank he used to take the image and gravely 

 pass its belly with the row of projecting cowries over 

 his lips, and when I gave him liquor of any sort 

 he would always take it out and pour a libation over 

 its feet before drinking himself. Libations are great 

 features in the religious rites of these Western 

 Africans, as they were amongst the Ancient Glreeks. 

 It used to puzzle me where the four sacred cowries 

 came from ; they are unknown on the Fernand Yaz, 

 and I believe came across the continent from Eastern 

 Africa. 



Next morning (November 19th) we marched over 

 a wild, hilly, and wooded country until eleven 



