AN INQUISITIVE COMPANY. 277 



could be used for a long time as a fixed mark in the con- 

 struction of our route. 



The descent from the plateau on which Fatiko stands is 

 noticeable at once, although the country seems to rise to the 

 south in parallel chains of hills. Muddy channels, reminding 

 one of those in Uganda by their blackness, though not by their 

 depth, run between the rows of hills, and blocks of conglo- 

 merate are scattered on the ridges. Here and there is a little 

 brushwood, and, wherever a few trees form a clump, there are 

 whole nests of Amomum, the agreeable, sourish pulp of which 

 is much relished by everybody. The Arabic name used here for 

 Amomum is Abu Hamira ; in Unyoro and Uganda, where the 

 plant is called Matunguru, the fruit is eaten with banana 

 beer (mwdnge). 



A short distance before Kanakok we had to cross Khor 

 Bara again. Scattered zeribas full of huts, from which the 

 sound of merry singing reached our ears, form, together with 

 the village, the district of Loggolum, which is rich in corn and 

 sesame. Throughout the Shiili country, though plenty of red 

 durrah and Penicillaria are grown, eleusine is the more im- 

 portant grain, because it alone produces a strong, bitter drink 

 (called kongo by the Shiili), for here too drinking very often 

 takes the place of eating. I have seldom met with so numerous 

 and inquisitive a company as at this place — women, children, 

 and men, a motley crowd, with their glittering iron, brass, and 

 copper ornaments, many of the women carrying their infants on 

 their backs tied up in goat-skins and covered with gourd-shells. 



The undulations of the country before us were so con- 

 siderable that even the mountains of Fatiko were hidden from 

 view. I succeeded, however, in taking, from the top of an 

 ant-hill, the bearings of Mounts Goma, Kaka, and Kalavinya, 

 which crossed my former bearings. A very long march 

 took us from Kanakok to Koki. The hills, which run parallel 

 to the road and shut it in to the right, i.e., the west, form 

 the watershed between the Unyama and the Asua, and there- 

 fore all the streams we crossed that day ran to the left, that 

 is, eastwards to the Asua, while along our former route all 

 the Jchors flowed to the Unyama, the main stream of which 

 we crossed near Fatiko. The humidity of the soil in this tract 



