288 FATIKO TO FAUVERA. 



one of which was kindly given up to us at once. A difficult 

 stretch of country without water was said to lie before us. The 

 houses of this village of Fachora were a good deal like Wanyoro 

 houses, divided into compartments by cane partitions, and 

 padded with hay. But the granaries were totally different, 

 being oven-shaped. The house utensils were of the usual 

 description, and hunting weapons were conspicuous. The day 

 before we arrived, a buffalo had been killed and eaten. Tobacco, 

 Helmia (of which only the bulbs are eaten), Lubia, three kinds 

 of gourd, sesame, maize, and Yigna were cultivated. Towards 

 evening a large assemblage of Lango collected ; they had never 

 seen a white man, and my leather leggings, reaching to the 

 knee, which they called " elephant's legs," particularly interested 

 them. 



The next was indeed a march ! Grass of a height and 

 closeness rare even in Unyoro, and dripping with dew, had 

 literally to be broken through, for, as soon as we had left the 

 village, there was no road of any kind. As I had taken the 

 lead, I had, of course, the first and full enjoyment of the grass, 

 thorns, and water, and, at a temperature of 63° Fahr., to have to 

 crawl, as wet as a drowned rat, through bushes, is unpleasant 

 even in Central Africa. It was scarcely possible to take com- 

 pass bearings, everything was so wet, and the grass thrust itself 

 so impertinently even into our ears and eyes. The first clear- 

 ing was reached after about two hours and three-quarters' 

 march, and was hailed with joy, for we could dry ourselves 

 there in the sun. The delay — our rate of marching could not 

 have been more than two miles an hour — was made up for by 

 a quick march on the better ground we had now reached, 

 where the men ran to warm themselves, for a cool wind was 

 blowing. At Modo, our old night quarters, which we reached 

 shortly after midday, the water, always scanty enough, had 

 been drunk up by elephants and buffaloes, and so we had to 

 go on with thirst unquenched for two hours and a quarter 

 longer to Ras-el-Fil. There we found water in a row of 

 holes, which tasted good after a march of eight hours. From 

 this place we returned to Fatiko by the road described above. 



