148 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



attractive or intelligent looking lot. They do not fish and 

 seem to know httle about hunting. Although the soil is 

 fertile they grow only just enough grain for their needs, and 

 if they work at all, it is as carriers for the French. The 

 women, too, are coarse in feature with bulging foreheads and 

 snub noses. They wear their hair in many short tails which 

 stick out round the head. Some of them have curious 

 patterns cut on their arms, which denote that they were 

 selected as wives for the " big men " of Rabeh. 



Their houses are neatly built and have conical roofs of 

 straw and walls of zana-matting which the Bandas are very 

 good at making, and there is a trace of-elegance in the sides 

 and arches of the doorways which are plastered with mud. 

 In many of the houses there are big earthenware jars for 

 grain. These are raised off the ground on wooden trestles to 

 keep them from the rats, and there are similar but larger jars 

 to be found standing outside. 



On June 17 we reached Idio, a small Baghirmi village on 

 the right bank about forty miles from Fort Lamy. Here the 

 river is about 800 yards wide and winds picturesquely between 

 well wooded banks. The little village has a thriving appear- 

 ance, and the rich soil produces good crops of millet and 

 cotton which the natives make into thread and sell. They 

 do some fishing, too, and the nets they use are well made. 



By this time. Gosling had seen all the game there was to be 

 met with in the Shari regions, and had succeeded in obtaining 

 a very representative collection including bushbuck, reedbuck, 

 roan antelope, duiker, buffalo, giraffe, rhino, and wild dog; 

 so now his trips into the bush were chiefly taken to keep 

 the pot boiling. There was not much difficulty in doing 



