IIIDEOUSNESS OF K'lIUTU. 



91 



called by the Indians " manchil ; " by the Portuguese 

 "manchila;" and in West Africa " tipoia." Sayf bin 

 Salim agreed for the sum of ten dollars to hire his slaves 

 as porters for ourselves and our outfit. On the 24th 

 July, feeling strong enough to advance, we passed out of 

 the cultivation of Dut'humi. Crossing a steep and muddy 

 bed, knee-deep even in the dry season, we entered fields 

 under the outlying hillocks of the highlands. These low 

 cones, like similar formations in India, are not inhabited ; 

 they are even more malarious than the plains, the sur- 

 face is rocky, and the woodage, not ceasing as in higher 

 elevations, extends from base to summit. Beyond the 

 cultivation the route plunges into a jungle, where the 

 European traveller realises every preconceived idea of 

 Africa's aspect, at once hideous and grotesque. The 

 general appearance is a mingling of bush and forest, 

 which, contracting the horizon to a few yards, is equally 

 monotonous to the eye and palling to the imagination. 

 The black greasy ground, veiled with thick shrubbery, 

 supports in the more open spaces screens of tiger and 

 spear-grass, twelve and thirteen feet high, with every 

 blade a finger's breadth ; and the towering trees are 

 often clothed from root to twig with huge epiphytes, 

 forming heavy columns of densest verdure, and clustering 

 upon the tops in the semblance of enormous bird's nests. 

 The foot-paths, in places " dead,"— as the natives say, — 

 with encroaching bush, are crossed by llianas, creepers 

 and climbers, thick as coir-cables, some connecting the 

 trees in a curved line, others stretched straight down the 

 trunks, others winding in all directions around their 

 supports, frequently crossing one another like network 

 and stunting the growth of even the vivacious calabash, 

 by coils like rope tightly encircling its neck. The earth, 

 ever rain-drenched, emits the odour of sulphuretted hy- 



