THE JOUENEY OF THE BOATS TO YO 169 



dashes wildly into Yo shouting the glad tidings and bearing 

 aloft for witness a calabash of foam. Then all the town 

 goes down to the river-bed, running forward to meet the 



gosling's column near river yo 



oncoming stream, and raising a shout as the water slowly 

 fills and overflows from pool to pool. And the mallams 

 come down and kill a sheep upon the stones, mingling the 

 blood with the waters of the river as a thank-offering. 



The Yo forms the boundary between British and French 

 territory, and since this was determined, there has been a 

 great migration of the Mobbur communities over to the other 

 side. For the French have no posts in this part of their 

 territory, and the lawless nature of the Mobburs makes 

 them prefer to live free of the obligations that an administra- 

 tion involves. Nor are they afraid of the Tubus who, rather 

 than molest, treat them as allies and secret helpers in many of 

 their raids upon the Kanuri, the hated tyrants who once 



