212 FERTILE COUNTRY. Chap. XVII. 



hut to place it on the lion, referred to the roof only. By 

 night it rained so copiously that all our beds were flooded 

 from below ; henceforth, therefore, we made a furrow round 

 each booth, and used the earth to raise our sleeping-places. 

 31y men turned out to work in the wet most willingly, and I 

 could not but contrast their conduct with that of Intemese, 

 who was thoroughly imbued with the slave spirit, and lied on 

 all occasions to save himself any trouble. We expected to 

 move on the 4th, but he declared that we were so near 

 Katema's, that, if we did not send forward to apprise that 

 chief of our approach, he would certainly impose a fine. As 

 it rained the whole day, we were reconciled to the delay ; but 

 on Sunday, the 5th, he apprised us that we were still two 

 days distant from Katema. Unfortunately we could not dis- 

 pense with him, for the country was so deluged that we 

 should have been brought to a halt before we went many 

 miles. 



6th. — Soon after starting we crossed, in a canoe, a branch of 

 the Lokalueje, which was described by a term applied to all 

 branches of rivers in this country, viz. nuana Kalueje (child 

 of the Kalueje). In the afternoon we crossed the main stream, 

 which had now about forty yards of deep fast-flowing water, 

 but probably has not more than half that amount in the dry 

 season : it is, however, a perennial stream, as the existence of 

 hippopotami in it proves. It winds from north-east to south- 

 west into the Leeba. The country adjacent to its banks is 

 extremely fine and fertile, with here and there patches of 

 forest or clumps of magnificent trees. The villagers through 

 whose gardens we passed continue to sow and reap all the 

 year round. Cereals, such as maize, lotsa (Pennisetum typlioi- 

 deum), and lokesh or millet, are to be seen at all stages of 

 their growth. My companions expressed the greatest admira- 

 tion of the agricultural capabilities of the whole of Londa, 

 and were loud in their praises of the pasturage, lamenting, at 

 the same time, that there were no cows to feed off the rich 

 crops of grass. 



Great numbers of the omnivorous fish Glanis siluris, or 

 mosala, spread themselves over the flooded plains, and, as the 

 waters retire, try to find their way back again to the rivers. 

 The Balonda make weirs, either of earth or of mats, across the 



