CHAPTER XI 



JOURNEY CONTINUED FROM ASHAKA TO MAIFONT 



During the evening a lot of native beer was drunk and the 

 crowd became very Hvely, with noise of laughter and shouting 

 that continued far into the night. The beer is not an un- 

 pleasant beverage, rather thick and sweet like malt extract 

 and decidedly " heady." It is made by a very simple 

 process ; millet corn is boiled and stood out in the sun for 

 four or five hours for several days ; it then ferments and 

 the liquid is strained off into large earthenware jars. 



While I was at Gaddam, the King of Gombe, a large 

 town two days distant to the north, sent his son with a 

 handsome " dash " of four sheep and a good supply of 

 " chop " for the " boys." 



' Our road now took a turn to the north, and the next 

 night found us camping in the bush. Thence we went on 

 to Tunga, a picturesque and populous Fulani town which 

 stands out in my memory by reason of the numbers of 

 storks' nests that were built on the fine baobab trees around. 

 They were the only ones I saw upon our journey, and made a 

 remarkable and pretty sight from my tent, which was under 

 a fig-tree within the city walls. There were as many as twenty 

 nests in one large tree, and I never grew tired of watching the 

 mother birds sitting upon the nests, or standing up against 

 the blue sky, that shone brighter for the contrast of their 



