JOURNEY FROM ASHAKA TO MAIFONI 237 



a shot rang out in the bush behind. Instantly the heroes 

 scattered, the one side disappearing into the reeds and scrub, 

 while the other dashed straight into the water and waded 

 and waded till they faded away in the distance, still wading. 

 Thus was my first impression of the curious shallowness of 

 the Lake reahsed in a rather strange manner. To go back 

 in my story for a moment : before we had emerged from the 

 belt of bush, we had seen a herd of kob away on the plains 

 to the right, so Jose turned of! the path to stalk them, and 

 it was the report of his shot that had so effectively cleared 

 the battlefield. It appeared that the fight was being waged 

 between the Kanembu herdsmen of the land and the Buduma 

 because the latter had stolen some cows and carried them off 

 to their islands. If I may be forgiven for tampering with 

 the classics of the Nursery, I think the alteration of a 

 few words in a famous poem tells the story in the simplest 

 language. 



Kanembu and Buduma 



Agreed to have a battle, 

 For Kanembu said Buduma 



Had spoiled him of his cattle. 

 Just then a kob by us did go 



And Jose fired his barrel, 

 Which frightened both the heroes so 



They quite forgot their quarrel. 



I now followed the shore fine all the way to Kaddai, 

 counting every step and taking observations for a map. 

 Once we caught sight of what appeared to be a white man's 

 boat on the horizon, and my spirits fell at the idea that a 

 French gunboat had forestalled my explorations. But 

 happily it proved to be a Buduma canoe, with its reed-built 



