V THE SURVEY CONTINUED 141 



so virulent that people often die in twenty minutes after 

 having been hit. 



The next night was spent at Munyi, quite a large Bornu 

 town, and from a spot to the north-east of this an azimuth 

 was taken to the hill near Arris. We had now entered the 

 Plain of Bornu which stretches right up to the shores of Lake 

 Chad, and the only way of surveying across it was by a 

 tedious rigorous traverse. The carriers cut a line through 

 the bush as straight as possible. This I measured and took 

 theodolite angles. Working from dawn to dusk by this 

 method we generally managed about half a mile to a mile a 

 day, according to the thickness of the bush to be cut down. 

 Our chief difficulty was want of water, which usually had to 

 be brought from the nearest village. We here found the 

 Kanuri bottles very useful. These are made of grass, so 

 closely woven that they are quite water-tight, and are really 

 a beautiful piece of work. 



At Balamingubdo a small baby-boar was presented to me, 

 but this made itself such a nuisance, that I gave it away 

 again, and its fate among hungry carriers can be better 

 imagined than described. 



At Dallguri my interpreter came up and asked for some 

 money with which he bought one of the pretty green paroquet 

 which abounded in the neighbourhood. He then killed it 

 and took a small part to wear as a juju. He said that it 

 was a most powerful magic and that so long as he wore it 

 no one would be able to kill him. 



There was a great amount of millet grown near the 

 towns round here. The harvest had been abundant, so we 

 had no difficulty about food. The bush abounded in ground 



