( 299 ) 



V. 



TRAVELS TO THE WEST OF THE BAHR-EL-JEBEL. 



i. From Lad6, on the White Nile, through Nyambara 

 to Kediba, in the Kedertj Country. 



OFF ON A HOLIDAY ! — A SWAMPY TRACT — A DEFEAT OF THE DANAGLA — 

 KHOR KODA AND ITS FLOODS — A NYAMBARA DANCE — A NYAMBARA 

 VILLAGE — ARRIVAL IN KEDERU. 



With almost the same feelings that fill the heart of a school- 

 boy when the first day of his holiday has begun, I left Lado, 

 with all its heat, behind me on the 15 th of September 1881, 

 bound this time for the north, to inspect the old mudirie 

 (Government department) of Rol. Immediately behind Lado 

 there extends a trough- shaped depression edged with thickets 

 (running, on the whole, from south to north), which is swampy 

 in parts, owing to the large amount of rain that has fallen this 

 year, and in other parts sandy and covered with impenetrable 

 bushes of thorns. It harbours numerous lions, so that the 

 traveller has to be very wary. A delicious scent is given off 

 by millions of yellow and pink acacia blossoms, which, together 

 with Balanites, Zizyphus, Kandia, and similar thorns, flourish in 

 such sandy flats, forming at the same time a favourite resort 

 of the Fringillidse, which swarm in this region. On clearings 

 in the midst of this chaos of thorns are situated the little 

 hamlets of the Bari chiefs, Yalo and Mari, which together 

 form the district of Nyori. They were enclosed in hedges of 

 blossoming euphorbia, and surrounded by extensive yellow sandy 

 stretches and numerous fields of durrah, the second crop this 

 year. The eleusine was still small, and the Lubia had hardly 

 sprouted. Large swarms of geese enliven these fields, and 



