352 FEOM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



stronger owing to small islands of long grass that form narrow 

 channels. 



In the afternoon we arrived near a Fudjulu village that 

 was in the course of construction about two miles from the 

 river. Later on the people came down to my camp with 

 food. In their deahngs they reminded me of the Banziri on 

 the Ubangui. I paid the chief well in cloth for the " geri " 

 and eggs which he brought, but he was not satisfied. I 

 asked him to sell me some fowls ; he produced one and I 

 told him if he brought me another I would give him cloth 

 for the two, for the amount of cloth one would give for a 

 single fowl is too small to be of use to the native. He replied 

 that he would bring another in the morning. As 1 had nothing 

 to eat for my dinner I asked him to leave me the one, saying 

 I would pay him for the two in the morning ; but he would 

 not trust me and insisted on taking the fowl away with him. 



That night sleep was impossible, for there was drenching 

 rain which the grass shelters failed to keep out, and the next 

 morning we started tired and bedraggled. Solace, how- 

 ever, came shortly afterwards in a hippo which Jose secured 

 with a clever shot. On the strength of this we called a halt, 

 and then the sun came out to dry our wet clothes and there 

 was general rejoicing throughout the camp. I made out 

 that we were now twenty miles from Yei. 



While the men slashed away at the hippo, I devoted my 

 time to making a path along a straight reach of the river for a 

 measured distance of 100 yards, past which I timed the boat 

 to give me an idea of our rate of going ; of course this was 

 useless for bad water, and in the latter case I had to judge 

 the distance by eye. 



