Chap. XLIV, CONSEQUENCES OF SLAVE-HUNTS. 225 
much on account of the huts, which they might 
easily rebuild, as on account of the granaries, the 
grain having been harvested some time previously ; 
and, as far as I became aware, there being no sub- 
terranean magazines or catamores, as I had observed 
with the Marghi, and the fugitives in the hurry 
of their escape most probably having only been 
able to save a small portion of their store. In esti- 
mating, therefore, the miseries of these slave-hunts, 
we ought not only to take into account the pri- 
soners led into slavery, and the full-grown men who 
are slaughtered, but also the famine and distress 
consequent upon these expeditions, although nature 
has provided this peculiar tribe with innumerable 
shallow watercourses swarming with fish, which must 
tend greatly to alleviate their sufferings under such 
circumstances. 
The forest intervening between these villages con- 
sisted almost exclusively of " kindm" or talha-trees, 
which were just in flower, diffusing a very pleasant 
fragrance, while here and there they were over- 
shadowed by isolated dum-palms. As for deleb-palms, 
I did not observe a single specimen in the whole of 
this district ; but beyond the river to the south-east, 
as I have mentioned above, I had seen several in the 
distance. 
After a march of four hours, we again reached the 
broad ngaljam of Demmo, but at a different point 
from where we had crossed it in the morning 
with so much delay. It seemed almost providential 
VOL. III. Q 
