32 \ BUFI TO RUMBEK. 



which to enrich my sketch-map. The short turf was here com- 

 pletely covered with the excrement of the Sciurus (Xemts) leucum- 

 brinus, which, after being powdered, is used to heal old wounds, 

 for this squirrel feeds upon all kinds of aromatic bulbs. This 

 custom reminds me of a practice which obtains in the south 

 Syrian desert, where the excrement of certain gazelles is used 

 in the same way. 



From the Manivolu peak — for such is the name of the mass 

 of gneiss just mentioned — the path followed a sinuous course 

 until, after passing the road which leads direct from Amadi to 

 Ayak, it suddenly turned to the south, and then branched off 

 to the west, over stony, gently rising country, until it reached 

 a small village named Kerimu, which lies in the midst of 

 dokhn-fields. As the name Kerimu is also given to the whole 

 district surrounding the village, I think I am justified in 

 assuming that this is Petherick's Kirmo, and if so, our routes 

 here join one another. Chief Atoti, who resided here with his 

 wives, received us in a very friendly way, but he was not in 

 a position to offer us a drink of water, as the springs are 

 said to be very far away, and he therefore requested us not to 

 camp at his village. Kerimu is small, and surrounded by rich 

 tobacco plantations and beautiful high Anogeissus trees, which 

 are called here, as in the Dinka country, amed. 



A curious band of music had taken up a position at the foot 

 of a stately tamarind. A young man blew an immense horn 

 constructed of long gourds ; by increasing and diminishing the 

 size of the sound-hole, he was able to modify the notes which 

 he produced ; they sometimes resembled the trumpeting of an 

 angry elephant or the roaring of a bull, or sometimes the soft 

 purring of a great cat. He was accompanied by a friend who 

 clapped with wooden staves and sang a monotonous song. We 

 set off, headed by this music, and I am even now amazed 

 when I think of the lungs which were able to go on blowing 

 incessantly over the long uneven road. 



The steppe became much more stony from this point. Many 

 nodules of ferruginous clay, black as coal, lay in the red sand. 

 A diminutive fly, called by the people dttbanet-el-fil, i.e., ele- 

 phant's fly, is one of the plagues of these grass steppes. I 

 found it more impertinent than any of its species, and it dis- 



