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NATURE 

[ Fan. 12, 1871 

chiefs receive rich presents. It is true the Nubians are not so 
philanthropic in their seribes, but in respect to the Niam-Niams, 
nothing can be said against them, as hostilities would destroy the 
object they have in view. The buried ivory cannot be discovered 
by any divining rod ; there are no cattle to be stolen; and the 
women and children always hide themselves at once, and in 
time, in the impenetrable thicket of the woods, so that no booty 
is to be obtained in slaves. It is, therefore, however improbable 
it may sound, the Niam-Niams who, entirely through their 
horrible lust for human flesh, commence the war. ‘‘ Flesh, 
flesh !” is their war-cry, and a few female slaves, at least, who 
have lost their way in fetching water, are sacrificed to their 
cannibalism. 
The journey back was commenced by the same route. On 
touching upon Uando’s territory once more, alarming rumours 
reached us. It was said that this chief had brought out the whole 
of his force of warriors to bar our passage ; in fact we discovered 
that the first villages we came to were deserted ; armed Niam- 
Niam warriors lurked everywhere in the tall grass, and ap- 
proached within range of our guns. But they did not show 
themselves particularly desirous of entering into hostilities 
with us. At one of the next villages, where Abu Tsammat re- 
ceived from the head man some ivory which he had left behind 
him upon the outward journey, several Niam-Niam men pressed 
their services upon us as guides or parlementaires. I was fully 
convinced of the existence of treachery, and vainly endeavoured 
to persuade Mohammed to seize some of these spies, and hold 
them as hostages. He had to repent it bitterly. After a short 
time they proved themselves to be assassins sent out by Uando, 
as the chief fondly imagined that the caravan would fall into 
his possession upon the death of the leader. Mohammed rode 
in front upon his mule ; close behind him came the Niam-Niams. 
I followed a few paces behind them, and carried my gun myself, 
whilst Mohammed, according to custom, had his carried after 
him All at once I heard shots, and saw Abu Tsammat fall 
from his saddle covered with blood. One of the Niam-Niams 
had given hima thrust with his spear ; the assassins made off, 
and were lucky enough to escape, notwithstanding the shots that 
were sent after them, as there could be no question of pursuing 
them into the thicket. At the next village halt had to be made 
for the purpose of rest. The place was almost entirely in flames, 
and an entrenchment was made from the dy7s of the houses. 
Fortunately, the wound of the leader of the caravan, although a 
very severe one, it having been increased by drawing out the 
barbed point of the spear, was not very deep. With a num- 
ber of entomologist’s pins which I happily possessed, I managed to 
sew it up, and in three days’ time the wound was nearly closed, 
and would have been soon completely healed if Mohammed could 
have kept himself quiet. During our enforced stay at this place 
we were frequently alarmed by demonstrations on the part of the 
enemy, but they could not summon up resolution to attack us 
seriously. 
Busier times soon followed. The most serious part of the 
journey was the passage across the rivers, which, although we 
now followed a more easterly direction in order to avoid several 
of them, was occasionally used by the Niam-Niams for an attack 
uponus. The noise and shouting may well be imagined, when 
for instance a female slave completely disappeared with her bur- 
den in the flood, the beating of the Nubian soldiery, the clatter 
of the pumpkin shells and kettles ; all this increased by a hail of 
arrows hurled by unseen hands from the adjacent thickets. How- 
ever, we passed through without any loss ; the enemy did not 
venture upon approaching near enough to hurl his costly iron 
projectiles, but contented himself with bamboo arrows with heads 
of hard wood. Another division that was allied to us, but which 
had separated itself from us on the outward journey, was not 
so fortunate, as whilst it was endeavouring to join us 
upon the return journey, it was attacked during the passage over 
the river by an overwhelming force. The leader and several of 
the soldiers were killed outright, others were severely wounded, 
so that the company was compelled to leave many valu- 
able articles behind, in order to get out of the swamp as 
quickly as possible, and thus secure its retreat. After a very 
fatiguing march, I thus at length reached Seriba Tsabbo once 
more, where I intend resting for some weeks to recruit my 
strength, and to complete my collections and correspondence. 
Upon the road I had to cross once more the river Tondji, the 
passage of which I have made so frequently. As there is an 
utter lack of boats, all the baggage has to be conveyed on little 
rafts, each of which is steered by a swimming negro across the 

raging torrent. I can only express satisfaction with the result of 
my journey, although the direct distance travelled was not very 
great, being from here to Munsa’s town about seventy-five German 
miles. I became acquainted with races, which, until very re- 
cently, had never come into contact with European and Oriental 
civilisation in the slightest degree, and who had developed for 
themselves a perfectly independent state of cultivation, so strange 
and uncommon that one imagined himself in a new world when 
among them. 
glass bead remains with ;Mombuttu to remind one of the con- 
nection opened up by Mohammed Abu Tsammat a few years 
ago. Extraordinary to relate, there was no trace whatever to be 
found there of the great lake mentioned by Piaggia, and pre- 
viously by von Heuglin, although we met with various tribes of 
the Niam-Niams, and were well supplied with interpreters. I have 
naturally laid down my route carefully, have made a collection of 
words of the different languages spoken by the races visited by 
me, and have taken the dimensions of numberless individuals, 
amongst others, several of the Acku dwarfs, whom I met at the 
court of Munsa, and one of whom [ took away with me as my 
faithful attendant. The remains of the Mombuttu feasts furnished 
several skulls for my collection. The booty in plants was also a 
very extensive one. I have made up my mind, upon important 
grounds, to remain here for another year, and to make another 
journey into the Niav-Niam country, but this time by a westerly 
route, in order to clear up several remaining doubts as to the 
geography of this country, which was never traversed before me 
by a single European. 
G, SCHWEINFURTH 


SCIENTIFIC SERIALS 
Pogeendorf’s Annalen, 1870, No. 8—The following are the 
contents of this number: (1) ‘‘ Thermochemical Researclies” 
(sixth, seventh, and eighth parts), by Julius Thomsen. 
forms the conclusion of Thomsen’s researches into the thermal 
effects of the neutralisation of acids, and ends with a collective 
statement of results. The experiments relating to what the 
author calls chemical ‘‘avidity” are likely seriously to modify 
commonly-received views of chemical action, showing as they do 
that the heat of combination between acids and bases is not a 
measure of their tendency to combine. (2.) ‘* Researches relat- 
ing to Electrical Discharge,” by W. von Bezold. Experiments 
relating to the propagation of sudden electric waves in branched 
conductors. The author finds, among other resuits, that the 
velocity of such waves is independent of the material of the con- 
ductor ; his experiments also indicate the existence of electrical 
phenomena analogous to the reflexion and interference of waves. 
(3.) ‘fOn the Electro-motive Force of the Voltaic Arc,” by W. 
von Bezold. Edlund has shown that the electric light plays the 
part, not merely of a resistance interposed in the circuit, but also 
of an inverse electro-motive force. Von Bezold attempts an ex- 
planation of this fact, founded on the consideration that the dis- 
charge between the carbon-points must be periodic instead of 
continuous, and therefore their difference of tension a variable 
magnitude, whose maximum exceeds the electro-motive force 
corresponding to the resistance of the arc and the mean strength 
of the current. (4.) ‘‘On the Theory of the Electrophorus 
Machines and of the Supernumerary Conductors,” by P. Riess. 
(5.) ‘On the Specific Heat of Water in the neighbourhood of its 
maximum density,” by L. Pfaundler and H. Platter. The 
authors determined the specific heat of water between o° and 
11° C, by mixing weighed quantities at known temperatures be- 
tween these limits, and observing the temperature of the mix- 
ture. From their results, they calculate an empirical formula 
containing the fourth power of the temperature. Taking the 
specific heat at 0° as I, they find that at 1°25 it is only 0°9512, 
while at 6°°75 it is 1°194, and at 11° it is again as low as 1°0298, 
(6.) ‘* Acoustical Studies of Flames,” by E. Villari. The author 
found that the tone of a vibrating tuning-fork was reinforced 
when brought near to a large gas-flame. When the flame, which 
was thus thrown into sympathetic vibration, was looked at 
through radial slits in a rapidly revolving opaque disc, it was 
found that, if the rate of rotation of the disc bore the proper re- 
lation to the rate of vibration of the fork, the flame appeared to 
be divided by stationary bands showing alternate maxima and 
minima of brilliance. When the rate of vibration was changed, 
but all other circumstances remained unaltered, the distance be- 
tween the bands was found to vary inversely as the rate of 

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