224 GONDOKORO TO AGARU. 



carried on by means of large nets, made from fibres of San- 

 seviera, which is very common over the whole of Latiika ; they 

 are spread out over a part of the khor by five or six persons, 

 and then drawn to land. Large fish are killed with sticks, but 

 crocodiles are allowed to escape. 



About an hour and a half's journey from here to the north- 

 west lies an extensive forest of doleb palms called Kayala (a 

 general name for all palm forests) ; it is about four hours' march 

 in length, and, in parts, two hours' march across. Now that corn 

 is scarce, it abundantly supplies all the surrounding villages 

 with orange-coloured fruits, which are carried for miles by 

 women in nets on their heads ; the stringy husks are either 

 eaten raw or macerated in water, which is then drunk. The 

 kernels themselves are planted, and dug up again as soon as 

 they begin to sprout, when they are eaten raw or boiled. The 

 large village Loronio, about five hours' journey distant, also 

 draws its supplies from this forest ; but as the elephants, and 

 still more the very numerous baboons, like to have their share, 

 and are often very troublesome, the villagers have combined to 

 send a guard in turns to the forest to protect the women and 

 children. 



Close beside the station stands the Negro village Okella, 

 which must certainly have existed for very many years, for the 

 original fence has gradually become such a thick entangled mass 

 of bushes, briers, underwood, and trees, that it is quite impossible 

 to get through it except at the entrances, which are kept free 

 by the inhabitants, and which Baker mentions. This natural 

 fort could hold out for a long time even against an attack with 

 firearms. The wood forming the rampart is in places nearly 

 a mile broad. The village stands on a very large open 

 space within this fortress of wood, and as Chief Chulong was 

 killed in a quarrel, it is governed by his wife, until her son 

 grows up. The huts are built of straw in a peculiar form, and 

 are arranged in groups separated from one another by fences 

 and shockingly dirty narrow paths. At one end of the village 

 an enclosure built round an immense fig-tree is used as a meet- 

 ing-place by the men. Upon a high scaffolding there are nume- 

 rous reclining-boards, which command a distant view, and are 

 occupied at all hours of the day by men of all ages, talking, 



