Chap. XLIV. SPOIL AND SLAUGHTER. 
195 
the line of the face straight ; but their thick eye- 
lashes, wide, open nostrils, thick lips, high cheek- 
bones, and coarse bushy hair, gave them a very wild 
appearance. The proportions of the legs, with the 
knee-bone bent inward, w r ere particularly ugly ; and 
on the whole they were more bony than the Margin'. 
They were all of a dirty black colour, very far from 
that glossy lusjtre which is observed in other tribes. 
Most of them wore a short beard. The ears of several 
were adorned with small copper rings, while almost 
all of them wore round their necks a thick rope made 
of the dum-bush or ngille, coarsely twisted, as a sort 
of ornament. 
Soon after setting out from the place of Monday> 
encampment, we had to cross the ngaljam, Deceml > e r 2 9th. 
which here also was thickly overgrown with rank grass, 
and the passage of which was very difficult, owing 
to the countless holes caused by the footprints of the 
elephant. We then entered a dense forest, where I 
saw again, for the first time, my old Hausa ac- 
quaintance, the k6kia, a middle-sized tree with large 
leaves and with a fruit of the size of an apple, which 
at present was green, but even when ripe is not 
edible. This tree, in the course of the expedi- 
tion, I found to be ver}^ common in the wilds of this 
country. 
The unwarlike spirit of our large army became 
more apparent than ever by to-day's proceedings : for 
a vigorous commander would certainly have acceler- 
ated his march through this forest, in order to take 
o 2 
