342 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XL VIII. 
all my things ; for their voracity and destructive 
powers seem to increase towards the beginning of the 
rainy season, which was fast setting in. 
The weather was exceedingly sultry, and we had 
the first thunder-storm on the 3rd of April ; and from 
that time we experienced a tornado almost every day, 
although in general there was not much rain. 
The village itself, of course, afforded very little 
entertainment. In former times it had been nothing 
but a slave or farming village, or " yoweo," while the 
masters of the field-hands resided at another place 
called Kustiya ; and it was only a few years previously 
that they had taken up their residence at this place ; 
nevertheless even at present it is nothing better than 
a farming village, grain being the only produce of the 
place, while the inhabitants do not possess a single 
cow, so that milk and butter are great luxuries, and 
even a fowl quite out of the question. But as for 
grain, Bakada is not without importance ; on the con- 
trary, it is one of the chief corn-growing places in the 
country, especially for sorghum (ngaberi," or, as they 
call it, "wa"), while millet ("chengo") is not so 
extensively grown. 
A market is held every Sunday, near the western 
hamlet ; but it is very miserable indeed, and it was 
all the worse for me, as the people refused to accept 
in payment any of those small articles of which I was 
still possessed, all my property at the time consist- 
ing of 3000 shells — that is to say, little more than 
a Spanish dollar, — a small assortment of beads, and a 
