THE DONGU RIVER. 451 



At last I ordered a halt, and went forward myself in quest of 

 huts and guides, when, as luck would have it, I came upon 

 some dwellings, the occupants of which, being subjects of 

 Ikwa (Wando's son, and a friend of mine), gave me a guide, 

 who conducted us to Bongere's village, where we arrived 

 towards three o'clock in the uiorning. 



I shall go on again to-morrow morning, if the few porters 

 I have asked for arrive. We are now in the middle of the 

 Zande country, a " gallery " wood still reminding us occasionally 

 that we are yet far to the south. Hunting being the chief 

 occupation of the people, their dwellings are scattered singly 

 over the country, and enormous tracts of land are purposely 

 left uncultivated, partly as a protection against the attacks of 

 enemies, but still more as refuges for all kinds of game, for the 

 Zande like meat above all things, and human flesh, though it 

 is preferred, cannot always be easily obtained. 



The Dongu lies about an hour's journey to the south of this 

 place, and has flooded the country far and wide ; in the dry 

 season, it can easily be forded even here. I believe I have 

 now determined its lower course almost completely, having 

 seen it at four different points. Its abundance of water may 

 easily be accounted for by its draining the numberless swamps 

 and marshy hollows which intersect the country between here 

 and the highlands of Makraka, and contain an ample supply of 

 water all the year round. It is still an undecided question 

 whence the Dongu comes, but most probably it descends from 

 the mountains round Janda and Korobe. If I return from 

 the north with a whole skin, one of my first tasks shall be to 

 visit the western slopes of the Kalika mountains, and then to 

 hunt up the source of the Kibali more to the south. All our 

 maps are incorrect, and I am inclined to believe that the posi- 

 tion of Monbuttu must be slightly altered. Dr. Junker is the 

 most competent authority on this point, and I will not fore- 

 stall him. 



Junker was still in the west when I last heard from Lupton 

 Bey, though he intended to go shortly to Dem Soliman on his 

 way home. But, as Lupton told me in the same letter that 

 the road to Meshra-er-Rek was blocked by the Dinka, and 

 could be traversed only with an escort of a couple of hundred 



