322 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XLVIII. 
We then kept close along its eastern side, having a 
rising ground on our left, with a most splendid bor- 
der of beautiful trees, chiefly of the fig kind. It was 
a scenery which reminded me of the Miisgu country, 
with this exception, that the watercourse was not so 
broad, and the rich foliage of the trees was not oc- 
casionally broken and diversified by the deleb-palm. 
An almost uninterrupted line of hamlets skirted 
this narrow strip of verdant fertility, and. now and 
then groups of people were seen issuing from the 
thick foliage, while numerous herds of cattle were 
spread over the green swampy meadow-lands, some 
half-immersed in the water, and nipping off the 
fresh shoots of the young grass, while others were 
roaming about on the dry herbage near the border. 
Amongst the cattle, birds of the most beautiful 
plumage, and of every description and size, were 
sporting and playing about : there was the gigantic 
pelican dashing down occasionally from some neigh- 
bouring tree; the maraboo (Ciconia If.), standing 
like an old man, its head between its shoulders ; the 
large-sized azure-feathered " dedegami," strutting 
proudly along after its prey, the plotus, with its long 
snake-like neck ; the white ibis, eagerly searching for 
its food, with various species of ducks (geddegabii, or 
u daba "), and numerous other lesser birds in larger or 
smaller flights. Now and then a wild hog suddenly 
started forth from the covert of the forest, accompa- 
nied by a litter of young ones, and plunged eagerly 
into the water. There was here a rich and inexhausti- 
