4 TOWN OF ORUKA. 



vated ground on which corn and yams were 

 growing. The town of Oruka is larger than I 

 expected to find it, and most of the natives that 

 we saw wore skins ; others were dressed in tobes 

 and cloth, and the generality of them were armed 

 with bows and arrows. I noticed a mill for 

 grinding corn. Seeing two pigs, we offered to 

 purchase one, but were refused, on the very rea- 

 sonable grounds that it was not right to separate 

 the husband from the wife, or the wife from the 

 husband ! We observed plenty of goats, sheep, 

 and poultry ; and several beautiful birds with 

 black wings and beaks, and bodies of bright 

 crimson, particularly attracted our attention. A 

 large tree of the Macadania or Shea butter was 

 also to us a very remarkable object. The nut 

 in which the butter is contained is about the size 

 of a large walnut, or a little larger : the fruit 

 is ripe shortly after the rains in October and 

 November. But the most remarkable object we 

 saw was a gigantic ant-hill, constructed of red 

 sand. I measured the height of it and found 

 it sixteen feet, and the diameter was about seven 

 feet. It was surmounted by copings resembling 

 the turrets of a castle, or the buttresses of a 

 cathedral. 



