316 ASHANGO-LAND. Chap. XVL 



110 doubt on account of their huts being so much 

 infested with these insects. 



Leaving the abandoned huts, we continued our 

 way through the forest ; and presently, within a 

 distance of a quarter of a mile, we came on another 

 village, composed, like the last, of about a dozen ill- 

 constructed huts, scattered about, without any regular 

 order, in a small open space. The dwellings had 

 been newly made, for the branches of trees of which 

 they were formed had still their leaves on them, 

 quite fresh. We approached with the greatest cau- 

 tion, in order not to alarm the wild inmates, my 

 Ashango guides holding up a bunch of beads in a 

 friendly way ; but all our care was fruitless, for the 

 men, at least, were gone when we came up. Their 

 flight was very hurried. We hastened to the huts, 

 and luckily found three old women and one young 

 man, who had not had time to run away, besides 

 several children, the latter hidden in one of the huts. 



The little holes which serve as doors to the huts 

 were closed by fresh-gathered branches of trees, with 

 their foliage, stuck in the ground. My Ashango 

 guides tried all they could to calm the fears of the 

 trembling creatures ; telling them that I had come to 

 do them no harm, but had brought some beads to 

 give them. I finally succeeded in approaching them, 

 for fear seemed to have paralysed their powers of 

 moving. I gave them some beads, and then made 

 my Ashango guides tell them . that we should come 

 back the next day with more beads, to give some to 

 all the women ; so they must all be there. One of 

 the old women, in the course of a short time, lost all 



