368 KAKUAK AND FAJELU COUNTRIES. 



very confiding mouse, which at once ate from my hand, showing 

 that it might easily be kept in a cage. As a rule, the female 

 has three to four young with her ; they are usually striped 

 exactly like the parents, but their rusty colour is of a rather 

 darker shade. This was, however, no place for either hunting 

 or collecting, for all the trees had been cut down in the neigh- 

 bourhood, with the exception of a few solitary tall ones along 

 the bank of the river. I was therefore glad to move on, and 

 after a tedious march through rain and mud, and a night spent 

 by Khor Yembe, an important tributary of the Yei, we passed 

 through an open forest, in which a Xeropetaluni was bloom- 

 ing. Then we reached Khor Kobbo, which is enclosed on both 

 sides by broad swampy borders, and sends its rushing waters 

 into the Yei. Two trees thrown over the khor formed a 

 rickety bridge, about sixteen feet above the rapid stream, 

 which was forty feet broad and twelve feet deep. The swampy 

 land on the other side of the khor was literally covered with 

 Pamassia paluspris 3 which could have almost been mistaken 

 for a European variety. A short march led us through a hilly 

 steppe, with swampy depressions, to the station of Rimo, our 

 headquarters in the Kakuak and Fajelii countries. 



Rimo consists of scattered groups of huts and zeribas, 

 surrounded by fields. It is the centre of a perfect babel of 

 tribes: Kakuak occupy the south and south-east; Fajelii the 

 north and south-west ; Mundii the west ; a colony of Bari, 

 who have wandered here from the Nile, have their dwellings 

 scattered all about, and the true Marshia occupy Rimo itself. 

 The cultivation of this district does not much differ from what 

 may be seen elsewhere, except that a few very neglected 

 bananas have been planted. Khor Geli, with its swampy 

 banks, would be a remarkably good place on which to culti- 

 vate rice, but, of course, no one has ever thought of planting 

 it. Cotton grows here very well. Rimo has suffered much 

 lately from the depredations of elephants, which have broken 

 into the station at night and destroyed the crops. It is very 

 remarkable that I saw no vultures along the whole of my 

 route, their absence being explained by the paucity of cattle, 

 whilst the few goats hardly supply the demands of the popu- 

 lation. The Milvus Forskalii, too, which is elsewhere so 



