JOURNEY FROM ASHAKA TO MAIFONI 233 



unarmed. However, my fears were set at rest when the chief 

 came forward and saluted me. He proved to be the head- 

 man of the Kachella of Yo, with about fifty horse and a party 

 of arrowmen. He said that he was hunting Tubus and had 

 sent out scouts into the bush ; which explained the parties 

 that I had met. He asked me where my carriers were, 

 saying that it was dangerous to travel alone. 



I now began to have fears for my " boys," who ought to 

 have come up with me by this time, for it had not occurred 

 to me that they might have taken the other road. So, riding 

 a horse which the chief lent me and accompanied by him and 

 his horsemen, I at once returned to look for them. After 

 an anxious time of doubt we at length came upon their tracks 

 along the alternate path, but did not overtake them before 

 getting into the town of Duci. On the road his scouts came 

 in to us, bringing a Tubu family which they had captured 

 in the bush. It was a very picturesque group, and a most 

 gentle surprise after the fierce people that the recent alarms 

 had suggested to the imagination. For the family party 

 consisted of a spare, shaggy man, armed simply with a spear, 

 and leading a brown, rough-haired camel, and chnging to the 

 man his wife, naked except for a scant skin, and with wild 

 frightened eyes piercing the shade beneath her fringe of black 

 twisted hair. The camel presented a most extraordinary 

 sight. It was like a living gipsy caravan, piled up with all 

 the household furniture of tent and cooking-pots, water- 

 skin and bag of meal ; and hung all over with bundles of 

 skins, which were their articles of trade. And out of the lump 

 of jumbled goods peered the scared faces of three skinny 

 little children. The Kachella's headman wanted to send 



