20 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



trees are of a finer growth. This country is inhabited by 

 the Ibos, a people of low type. They are agriculturists and 

 grow yams, rice, corn, plantains and palm oil, and rear small 

 numbers of goats, sheep, and fowls. 



After leaving Abo, a village of this tribe, where we anchored 

 for the night, we saw a strange sight of thousands of giant 

 bats, that circled in crowds as thick as starlings over a grove 

 of cocoanut palms, their furry, tawny bodies lit up golden in 

 the early morning sun. Their activity at this unusual hour 

 for twilight creatures evidently betokened some sudden and 

 abnormal swarming of insects that were their prey. These 

 bats are the denizens of the rivers, and sleep hanging on the 

 branches of the thickest-leaved trees. Often on our journey, 

 when the passing boats shook the boughs of an overhanging 

 tree, I recall how the sudden, silent flash of gold, flickering 

 for a moment in the sunlight to disappear swiftly into the 

 depths of some dark tree ahead, reminded me of the little 

 gold moths that dart from the thick ivy coverings of old 

 walls at home. 



A little beyond Abo the country becomes more open and 

 the tall trees recede from the banks, leaving spaces covered 

 with low bush and tall fish canes. 



We anchored for the third night at Onitsa, a fairly 

 large village belonging to the Egara tribe. These are fisher 

 folk, and further up the river we came upon their small grass 

 huts upon the sand-banks, where they come to fish in the dry 

 season. But when the river rises in the rains the sand-banks 

 are flooded and the Egara retire to their settlements inland. 



Often we saw numbers of vultures on these islands, 

 huddled asleep after their gorge of fish refuse, and heard the 



