348 



EOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATIONS AND PROGRESS FOR 1874. 



plorers. The Berlin African Society have also 

 sent out a second expedition, under the man- 

 agement of Captain von Homeyer, which is to 

 proceed to Canandge, on the border of Angola, 

 and thence to endeavor to penetrate to the 

 capital of Mnata Janivo. In March, 1874, Dr. 

 Gtissfeldt followed up the river Loango Luz, or 

 Ohilvango, as far as the junction of the Luculla 

 and the Loango. The German expedition into 

 the interior will start probably at the com- 

 mencement of the rainy season of 1875. Prof. 

 Bastian, setting out in June, 1873, spent three 

 months upon the Loango coast, searching for 

 the most favorable point of departure for the 

 German expedition from the west coast. Upon 

 his return he published an interesting account 

 of his observations. The territory is divided 

 into four kingdoms, Angoy, Kakongo, Little 

 Loango, and Great Loango ; farther inland lies 

 the forest country, Mazumba, which extends 

 as far as the mountains which separate the 

 coast from the interior. His accounts of the 

 dwarf race, Babongo (the Obongo of Du 

 Chaillu), and of the information that gorillas 

 are found upon the coast, are matters of in- 

 terest. Dr. Lenz set out independently to ex- 

 plore a portion of unknown Africa, intending 

 to trace the course of the Gabun and Ogowai 

 Rivers. The Okanda, the northern tributary 

 of the Ogowai, has been traced some distance 

 higher up by the French Marquises de Com- 

 piegne and Marche. They passed through the 

 country of the Okatas, who live poorly, and 

 sustain themselves chiefly upon a sweetish, 

 doughy, wild fruit abounding in the forests, 

 and traffic in slaves. They passed afterward 

 through the land of the Apingis, a gentle, in- 

 dustrious people, who cultivate the soil and 

 collect honey and caoutchouc. A rapacious 

 tribe, the Oszebas, prevented their pursuing 

 the journey to some large lakes, of which they 

 heard many reports. 



Bayard Taylor, in a visit to Egypt in the be- 

 ginning of 1874, saw at Cairo two specimens 

 of the pigmies which Schweinfurth had met 

 with in the country of the Nyam-Nyams. 

 Their country, called Naam or Takkatikat, lies 

 below the equator, beyond that of the latter. 

 It is described as a table-land, covered with 

 low, dense thickets, in which the pigmies take 

 refuge. They are said to prove no despicable 

 foe to the neighboring negroes. Schweinfurth 

 designates them under the name of Akka. 

 They appear probably in the Abongos of Du 

 Chaillu again ; and the name itself is detected 

 in the Bakka-bakka pigmy tribe, which Bastian 

 observed on the Loango coast, and which was 

 known to the Portuguese in the last century. 

 It is possible that, as Schweinfurth supposes, 

 commercial relations exist between the west 

 coast and the Nyam-Nyams, and that their 

 King Munoa draws a tribute of salt from the 

 coast-lands. Schweinfurth found no salt in the 

 country traversed by him. Their cannibalistic 

 habits, the coffee-brown hue of their skins, the 

 monthly festival with dances in the first-quar- 



ter of the moon, the nocturnal orgies, the prac- 

 tices of wearing ox-horns, of filing their teeth 

 to a point, and of wearing their hair in many 

 braids, the chieftains' robes of leopard-furs, 

 and the red-staining of their skins all tend to 

 strengthen the probability of the conjecture of 

 Schweinfurth, of ethnological affinities between 

 the Nyam-Nyams and the western nation of 

 the Fans. 



The expedition of Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs de- 

 parted from Siout, in Upper Egypt, on the 17th 

 of December, 1873, with the object of pene- 

 trating the Libyan Desert to the oasis of Kufra, 

 which is only known by rumor, and is reported 

 to be a large and fertile region lying in the 

 very heart of the Libyan Desert. Accompany- 

 ing Rohlfs were three noted men of science, 

 Profs. Jordan, Zittel, and Ascherson. The ex- 

 pedition was provided with water-tanks of 

 galvanized iron, and an abundant supply of 

 provisions and equipments. The Khedive se- 

 cured their safe conduct to the point of depart- 

 ure, and provided them with thirty-five camels, 

 hiring sixty-five others for their use for three 

 months. The company consisted of ninety men, 

 all told. On the 21st of December they, hav- 

 ing filled their tanks with fresh water and 

 provided themselves with meat and fodder, 

 commenced their march westward into the 

 desert. The first plateau gradually rose in 

 height until it was 1,000 feet above the sea- 

 level, about 150 miles out; and then it de- 

 clined again. There was no vegetation except 

 scattered bunches of dry, tough grass. On the 

 sixth day they came to the brink of a rocky 

 wall, 300 feet in height, overlooking a level, 

 sandy plain, with no signs of vegetation. Two 

 days' journey farther brought them to the 

 oasis of Farafrah, where they found a wretched 

 population of about 400, composed of the fa- 

 natical sect of the Senoosee. Beyond the oasis 

 is another sharp declivity which was found 

 like the first to belong to the earliest Eocene 

 period. On the way onward to the larger 

 oasis of Dakhel, they passed for three days 

 through a dismal waste, absolutely void of 

 vegetation, over a broad road of pebbles, which 

 seemed as though made by art, with sand-hills 

 from 150 to 250 feet in height on both sides 

 of them. The way ascended to the hard, bare 

 plateau, and then led down again, until in a 

 couple of days they passed through a remark- 

 able labyrinth of fantastically-shaped, detached 

 limestone rocks, and between two rocky 

 chasms, the walls of one of which were 1,500 

 feet high. The oasis of Dakhel lay two hours' 

 march beyond. The Egyptian governor gave 

 them an honorable reception. The oasis, con- 

 taining 1,700 inhabitants, according to Prof. 

 Ascherson, could support ten times as many. 

 The ancient Egyptians cultivated the whole area, 

 and ruins of their temples and dwellings stand 

 on places which are now barren. The gardens 

 produce olives, grapes, apricots, and mulber- 

 ries, as well as dates and oranges. Wherever 

 the stratum of chalk which underlies the oasis 



