282 FATIKO TO FAUVERA. 



the natives, but is called after the different districts through 

 which it passes. At Koch I sometimes heard it called Kyambo, 

 although its usual name in Kinyoro is Muigga. The name 

 Kioga is applied only to the lake-like enlargement of the river- 

 bed above Mriili, having no outlet to the north, which is marked 

 on Gordon's map Lake Coja, and has been repeatedly " dis- 

 covered." The name Kikiinguru is only used for the district, 

 and the mountains marked by that name on the maps have no 

 general name ; their highest elevation is called Msedya (man), 

 just as in Kabrega's country a high conical summit to the east- 

 south-east is called Msfalja mkwrru (the tall man). 



Slightly ascending, our path wound from here to Gasaui 

 through fine acacia forest, containing numerous hamlets and 

 extensive plantations of sweet potatoes, pulse, and tobacco, 

 besides small groups of bananas. But from Gasaui a stretch 

 of grass and reed-beds commenced which defies all description. 

 The banana groves run wild, with their fallen stems, and an 

 undergrowth of briers and tendrils which grow with almost 

 incredible luxuriance in the loose coffee-brown soil, are, in spite 

 of their thorns and prickles, not so unpleasant as the thick, 

 dense beds of reeds, which, rebounding, strike and lash the 

 traveller from all sides. A few solitary huts were all that 

 remained of the once flourishing village of Karsita. Deang 

 Malo (Malo), where we remained for the night (making, in the 

 Wanyoro fashion, only short marches from beer jug to beer 

 jug), is a small village, inhabited by smiths, who work the 

 good iron ore found in the neighbourhood. The whole district 

 from Tokra is called Deang, which name, therefore, is not con- 

 fined to a particular village, as I had before understood. My 

 men revelled here in maize cobs and sweet potatoes, of which 

 our host provided quantities in return for a small present. 

 We next met with broad hollows, fringed here and there with 

 woods and filled with almost impenetrable reed jungle. Large 

 groves of bananas, in which hundreds of trunks had been broken 

 down, probably by elephants, were rendered almost impassable 

 by plants growing in dense confusion between the fallen stems. 

 Any one who wishes to gain an idea of the gorgeousness of 

 African vegetation should visit one of these places, though he 

 will certainly congratulate himself if he gets out of the chaos 



