UP THE GONGOLA RIVER TO ASHAKA 157 



place was terribly famine-stricken, and the poor and old were 

 eating grass. Six victims were said to have died the day 

 Gosling arrived. The old king had ponies, sheep, goats, and 

 fowls in plenty, but he let his people die. 



Morning and evening the Fulani sent Gosling a large 

 present of new milk, which was brought to him by a pretty 

 little girl with three blue beads threaded in her hair and 

 swinging on her forehead, and brass anklets with bells upon 

 her feet. 



In the middle of the second night at Shillem, Gosling was 

 wakened by mosquitoes to find that his three polers from 

 Lau had decamped, taking with them the paddles and 

 poles. After a delay of three days the lammido managed 

 to procure him nine carriers with a promise of six more from 

 the Yam- Yam village of Frekhaio, two miles up stream on 

 the other side. After a perilous crossing, in which they nearly 

 went to the bottom, for the natives were not used to managing 

 so large a canoe and their poles were rotten, the right bank 

 was gained at a point a mile below the village. Here he 

 made up the number of his carriers, and started for Kombo 

 after a slight delay — caused by the news coming in of the 

 murder of a Hausa and two Shillem men on the road ahead. 

 It was a case of horse-stealing from the natives by traders, 

 so their deaths were deserved. Gosling's Fulani guide 

 talked the men round again all right, and they were soon upon 

 the road once more. This led through pretty bush country 

 and really good grazing-ground running right back to the 

 Yam- Yam hills, which are down-hke in appearance. Villages 

 were passed where the people ran away on his approach. 

 In these places the corn was nearly ripe, and sheep and 



