THE SURVEY CONTINUED 117 



strongholds from time immemorial. No tradition of an older 

 race, dispossessed by them, has come down, and indeed 

 it would have been difficult to imagine a more impregnable 

 fortress. To our great surprise we noticed several ponies, 

 and when we asked how they could possibly have been got to 

 such a spot, the natives naively answered, " Born there," 

 a reply which left us httle wiser as it did not explain how their 

 ancestors could have been got up. The general idea seemed 

 to be that, at the beginning of all things, these places of 

 refuge had been provided by the tribal gods for the special 

 use of the Kerri-Kerri, whose ancestors had been gently 

 deposited there with their cattle by the same benign agency, 

 and that they had remained there in peace and security 

 ever since. 



The crops were cultivated on the alluvial plain below, 

 but a six months' supply of food was always kept, in the 

 granaries already described. Even this plain, however, 

 was well protected, as we found it honeycombed with deep 

 trenches, so well covered with leaves and thin branches as 

 to make them quite invisible to any one even on the brink. 

 These were specially designed as a protection against the 

 invading cavalry of Bornu, and were so intricate that it was 

 necessary to follow our guides exactly to avoid falling into 

 them. 



Next day, August 12, we left Gamari, as the place was 

 called, and went to Lewe, another Kerri-Kerri stronghold 

 of almost identical formation ; except that at the top of 

 the central peak a small plateau of about 200 ft. square was 

 to be found, on which a few stunted shrubs managed to find 

 a foothold. Alexander stopped behind on Gamari for a few 



