202 AMONGST THE RESHIAT AND TO LAKE STEFANIE 



opposition. We were kindly greeted, and the information we 

 asked for was readily given. Though we had a guide we had 

 to ask a great many questions, for the rising floods altered the 

 conditions of the route daily, until they finally put a stop to 

 all intercourse. Further on we had to cross numerous creeks, 

 and at last we found ourselves at the edge of a far-reaching 

 stretch of water one thousand paces wide at least, at the nar- 

 rowest part, on the further side of which rose beautiful and 

 lofty trees, the beginning of the forest on the shore of the 

 Nianamm. The water between us and them was evidently an 

 arm of the lake, as it was not stationary, but rushing north- 

 ward at the rate of more than half a mile an hour. In we 

 went, the water here and there more than three feet deep, and, 

 as the bottom was anything but even, some of the shorter- 

 legged men got nearly out of their depth, and waved their arms 

 about in great distress till some one went to their rescue. 

 Where we were now wading up to the waist, Qualla had passed 

 over dryshod three days before. At last we reached, without 

 accident, the higher banks of the Nianamm, which was here 

 from 80 to 90 yards wide, and was flowing towards the lake at 

 the rate of about a mile and a quarter an hour. The shore on 

 either side was overgrown with a luxuriant vegetation, includ- 

 ing mighty forest trees and masses of low bush and creepers. 

 Here and there by the river were small Eeshiat settlements, 

 each consisting of no more than two or three hayrick- 

 shaped straw huts, at which we called to buy dhurra. After 

 a house-to-house visitation, which lasted several hours, we had 

 got together eight loads. The path then led away from the 

 river and took us to a dreary weed-grown plain, the forbidding- 

 aspect of which was increased by the charred remains of 

 numerous trees rising up from a tangle of parasitical growths. 

 Another couple of hours' march brought us to more plantations 

 of ripening dhurra belonging to the Buma, whose village on 



