150 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



supplies. He was never punished and was still in possession 

 when he died. 



One day an old ju-ju man came through the town, selling 

 medicine " to prevent scorpions from biting people." He 

 had five black scorpions with him, which he handled freely 

 and lodged in his beard. They did not seem to be very lively, 

 and as the old man said he fed them only once in ten days, 

 the diet must have consisted of his ju-ju, it had rendered 

 them so harmless ! 



After waiting a week at Lau in hopes of getting a lift in 

 a Government boat, which, however, failed to make her 

 appearance. Gosling succeeded in getting hold of a Bashima 

 canoe. Accordingly, he at once made a start up the river, 

 for he was getting anxious about Jose, who was waiting 

 for him at the mouth of the Gongola, and probably having 

 great difficulty to feed his polers and boys in such a famine- 

 stricken country as the Gongola region was reported to be. 

 He had his bed put up the first night on the left bank close 

 to a little Bashima fishing-station, where the people, who 

 were very nice to him, seemed to be pure savages, naked except 

 for small strips of cloth. He was struck with the number 

 of bead ornaments that many of the men were wearing. At 

 night they fish with large circular nets, fixed in wooden 

 hoops about 12 ft. in diameter. They use no bait, but 

 simply let down the net where the fish are hkely to come to 

 feed ; then wait in their little grass shelters on the bank, 

 before returning to raise it in hopes of catching a chance fish 

 or two. 



Next morning he made an early start and was well on his 

 journey up the river, when he was pursued by the Bashima s, 



