UP THE SHARI TO GULFEI 111 



discussed at great length ; its resources for catering for the 

 pleasures of the black man, and its size compared with 

 Lokoja, which is the London of Africa to all natives of Nigeria, 

 in whose minds no bigger place could possibly exist. 



Not long ago, I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Scott 

 Keltic read an interesting paper on " Travellers' Tales," a 

 subject about which he is shortly publishing a book, I beUeve. 

 I am sure if he had been with me that evening and had listened 

 to my Hausa " boys " pouring out stories of their adventures 

 on the Lake to their comrades from Fort Lamy, it would 

 have rejoiced his heart to discover that travellers are still 

 an inspired people, capable of supplying him with material 

 for many more volumes which would bring his work pre- 

 eminently up to date. For the " boys " told tales of the 

 mer-people living under the waters of Chad, and the stories of 

 the gigantic fish that they had speared would have driven all 

 our anglers in despair to follow the example of Truth and 

 drown themselves at the bottom of a well. Thev made 

 the eyes of their less fortunate comrades ghsten by their 

 accounts of virgin islands packed with kola-nut, which in the 

 natives' mind is equivalent to our dreaming of the realms 

 of gold. 



The next day saw us at Mani, a stragghng, dirty Kotoko 

 town, where there is a small French post of about five soldiers 

 under a sous-officier. The news of our coming had preceded 

 us up the river and the large sand-bank upon which we 

 camped below the town was crowded with sight-seers at our 

 departure on the morrow. The embarkation was delayed for 

 some time by " Maifoni " refusing to be put into the boat, 

 and bolting away to the village. Perhaps he had discovered 



