A LAND OF BOULDEES. 381 



west of the high hill of Mungo. The country is here crossed 

 in all directions by rows of hills, sometimes of considerable size. 

 Khor A'ire flows in a sharp curve towards the north, at a few 

 minutes' walk from the very prettily situated station. Its banks 

 are lined by beautiful woods, in which a great deal of rattan 

 {Calamus sccundiflorus) grows, having large fruit panicles. This 

 plant, which is called by the Zande poddu, and by the Mundii 

 akkd, provides the people with good material for basket-work 

 in its fine feathery fan, and its stalk, after being split and 

 freed from thorns, is plaited into beautiful shields. 



Crossing a hilly, scantily wooded steppe, broken by many 

 swampy depressions which drain the country towards the north, 

 our path led, after passing the swamp of Bopara, out of the 

 Mundii country into that of the Abaka. The language of the 

 latter is more nearly related to that of the northern tribes, 

 whereas the Mundii have penetrated here from the south, and 

 their nearest relations are the Mumberi or Momi, who live near 

 the Welle. I noticed that the steppe was covered by numerous 

 boulders ; they were sometimes broad slabs, sometimes round 

 Mamelons, just like those I had seen farther to the north, in 

 the Mittu district. They were occasionally quite bare, but in 

 other places covered with sparse vegetation. Khor Mekke and 

 Khor Edi were the largest watercourses we met with ; both 

 are sources of the Yalo. The bed of the first was composed of 

 bare rocks, while the second flowed over yellow sand. Khor 

 Edi was partially bridged over by a tree-trunk. From this 

 point the rise of the ground became more apparent, but there 

 were still many swampy places, through which we had to wade, 

 until we reached our station of Kanga, which is built in the 

 fallow fields surrounding the zeriba of the district chief. 



We had suffered considerably from cold during the last few 

 days ; as a rule the thermometer registered in the morning 

 at six o'clock 6 2° Fahr., which to us was a Russian temperature, 

 used as we were to the heat of the lowlands. In the mornings 

 our whole party, blacks, whites, and browns, sat round the fire 

 to warm our hands. Khor Edi flows quite near the station ; 

 a granite dyke running across it causes a large rapid. Where- 

 ever flat slabs of rock did not prevent the growth of vegetation, 

 there were broad impenetrable Pandanus thickets, inhabited by 



