26 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



earned Mrs Talbot's and my undying gratitude. It 

 was arranged, therefore, that we were to follow that 

 route ; but we had to curb our impatience to start 

 for a few days longer, till Ramadan was at an end. 



The inhabitants of Garua are mainly Fulani and 

 Mahommedans, who, of course, observe this fast, 

 which forbids eating and drinking between the hours 

 of dawn and sunset. No man would willingly miss 

 the orgy that they hold to celebrate its close, and it 

 was impossible to get carriers before the celebration 

 was over. There was not long to wait ; but we did 

 not want to remain the whole time in Garua, so we 

 decided to spend our days of forced inaction in a 

 country where Mr Talbot could hunt. 



Bogolo, a small village on the south side of the 

 Benue, was recommended to us for this purpose, 

 perhaps because it lay sufficiently high amongst the 

 hills to be raised out of the swamps by which the 

 plain lands were still submerged. It was only just 

 across the river, and as there was no difficulty 

 in getting day labour, we hired a steel canoe, 

 paddled by ten incompetent Nupe polers. They 

 worked fore and aft, with no connection between each 

 other, and bumped us into every bush in the river 

 — not only once, but again and again ; and it was a 

 matter of pure good fortune if we got near enough 

 to pick any particular grass that I coveted for my 

 collection. It was two o'clock on a blazing hot 

 afternoon that we made this traverse, and our only 

 shelter was a squalid rag, which let down over 

 the sides low enough to flap into our hats and faces 

 and obscure the view, which was made exciting by a 

 basking crocodile and the trail of a giant python. 



