244 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



June, The people liere were rough and dirty-looking, and wore their 



1874. mnd-plastered hair in irregular masses. Food was fairly plen- 

 tiful — bananas, fowls, eggs, flour, and palm-wine being obtained. 



The oil-palms are climbed by means of a piece of the midril) 

 of the palm frond flattened and softened, and a rope of creepers, 

 the midrib being passed round the tree, and the rope behind 

 the man's back, and tied together. The tree is then climbed in 

 the same manner as cocoa-nut palms frequently are in the East 

 Indies. 



During our two days' stay, one of the natives constituted 

 himself my showman. To each visitor to the camp he would 

 point out my books, boxes, etc., and, on my meals being brought, 

 would raise a shout that instantly caused a large crowd to as- 

 semble to witness my feeding. And I may add that the per- 

 formance seemed to give general satisfaction. 



The tameness of the goat excited an intense amount of won- 

 der here, as indeed it usually did elsewhere, the people evident- 

 ly thinking me a great magician to inake the animal come to 

 me when called. 



Leaving this, we passed through a large and well-watered val- 

 ley, with streams rnnning into Lake Lanji, and connnenced the 

 ascent of the mountains of Bambarre. 



Hour after hour we toiled up their steep sides, having often 

 to assist our feet by clutching at the trees and creepers grow- 

 ing on their well - wooded slopes ; and in the evening we 

 camped at the village Koana Mina, now deserted for another 

 erected rather more tlian a mile farther on. 



Resuming our ascent in the early morning, we followed for 

 im hour the winding path, and then turned into a dense mass 

 of forest, and immediately began to descend. 



The northern side of the Bambarre Mountains differs greatly 

 from the southern; for, instead of being a simple slope, they 

 are seamed into enormous gullies and ravines. Sometimes our 

 path was at the very bottom of them, then again at the top, 

 and at another time along their precipitous sides. 



No sunlight or breeze ever penetrates into these dark depths, 

 for a mass of monster trees, with spreading heads, shuts out the 

 slightest glimpse of sky. And w^hat trees they were ! Stand- 

 ing on the edge of a ravine a hundred and fifty feet deep, these 



