THE LAKORTA TREE. 241 



In a small opening before us were some fine trees, surrounded 

 by young crops, which were divided into large squares by 

 fences of brushwood and straw, as a protection from the water 

 that rushes furiously down from the adjacent mountains. The 

 very populous and independent district of Ikoto is characterised 

 by excellent reddish soil ; the numerous guard-huts in the 

 fields were deserted, but here and there upon the mountains 

 we saw small groups of people watching our march. A village 

 must once have stood near Khor IfFune, to judge from the 

 patches of castor-oil plants, the luxuriant Solanacese, and the 

 durrah which had run to waste. From the summit of an 

 adjacent hill I obtained a view over the mountains of the north- 

 eastern Shiili district ; Jebel Kuron, where a military post has 

 just been erected, was certainly the grandest of them. 



Leaving the Bayango range, we crossed the defile, and pass- 

 ing over hilly country bestrewn with rubble, we reached Jebel 

 Khofir, a group of hills about three hundred to four hundred 

 feet high, the spurs of which we had to mount after fording 

 two small khors. Their stony declivities, strikingly whitish in 

 colour, were covered at the top with thick brier brushwood, in 

 which we noticed the dwarf tree, with reed-like leaves, called 

 by the Shiili, Lakorta,* which we had seen last year near Chief 

 Rochama's village, Biayo ; it seems, indeed, to grow on all the 

 mountains of eastern Latiika. 



From the heights of Jebel Khofir the lofty Irenga mountains 

 came again into view. My guides pointed out to me the highest 

 part, lying almost due east, as Jebel Ziimo. Farther to the 

 north, a very high and apparently solitary summit they named 

 Jebel Baya, and a little to the south of it a large but very distant 

 mass, situated in the district of Haroo-o, thev called Jebel Toe. 

 We descended from the spurs of Khofir into a caldron-shaped 

 depression, where we rested a short time by some wells, and 

 then followed the path to the hills which form a continuous 

 barrier at the foot of the huge Jebel Sereten. The acacia 

 copse through which we passed was at first very thick, but 

 soon became more open, and Khor Koz, which hitherto had 

 run at some distance from the road, approached very closely to 



* Dr. Emin Pasha calls this elsewhere "Lakerda." See note on this name in 

 the Index. — G. S. 



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