236 . FATIKO TO FAUVERA. 



Bananas are, of course, a very important means of subsist- 

 ence, but the principal article of food in north Unyoro is the 

 red-skinned sweet potato, which yields abundant crops at all 

 seasons of the year. Besides the grains and fruits just enume- 

 rated, the usual vegetables are grown, such as gourds (Helmia 

 bulbifera), two kinds of yams, and Colocasia. There are also a 

 number of wild herbs, which are eaten as vegetables, and re- 

 markably good and prolific varieties of Phaseolus, so that vege- 

 table food is very plentiful. 



The supply of meat is not so satisfactory. As a rule cattle are 

 rare, and can hardly be taken into account except for the chiefs. 

 Goats and sheep (the latter very large, and having large fat tails) 

 are plentiful ; goat's flesh, however, is here always better and 

 fatter than mutton. Game can hardly be obtained during a large 

 part of the year, owing to the high grass, but is eagerly hunted 

 after the grass is burned down. Elephants are very numerous. 

 As to domestic animals, there are large numbers of sporting dogs, 

 of a good build, and generally of a brownish-yellow colour ; tamed 

 wild cats are common, but the real house-cat, introduced from 

 the north, is rare. Fowls are exceptionally numerous, but ex- 

 tremely small. Fishing is actively pursued in the river; the 

 dried, sometimes huge, fish are seen hanging up in every hut, 

 even inland at a great distance from the river. 



We should have celebrated Id-el-Kebir, the great or sacri- 

 ficial festival, here, but the road to Fatiko was long and rough, 

 and, as I had to inspect the rapids near here, where a small 

 station was to be established to secure the passage, we were 

 obliged to leave Anfma's sooner than he, and perhaps we 

 ourselves, wished. Immediately after leaving Panyatoli, the 

 descent to the river began. Well-tilled land, with numerous 

 zeribas scattered over it, by which the neatly kept road passes, 

 gradually gave place to woods containing beautiful tall trunks, 

 and here and there to grass land, or, where depressions occurred, 

 to reed thickets, as at the little Khor Nyambue. After a short 

 journey of not quite four hours, we reached the river, where the 

 bank, about eighty feet high, sloped steeply, and was composed 

 of ferruginous red clay. The river, flowing in a loop from east- 

 north-east to west-south-west, has at this place (Mutua, in the 

 district Fodi) no rapids, and is only about five hundred feet 



