200 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXVII. 
merly any towns and villages; and from all that I 
could learn, the former seems to be the case. How- 
ever, our road was frequented, and we met several 
little troops of native travellers, with one of whom 
I saw the first specimen of the " kiiri," a peculiar 
kind of bull of immense size and strength, with pro- 
portionately large horns of great thickness and 
curving inwards. They are almost all of white 
colour. Their original home is Karga, the cluster of 
islands and swampy ground at the eastern corner of 
the Tsad. 
After five hours' marching, when we had just tra- 
versed a small hollow full of herbage, the diim-palm 
was for a moment superseded by other trees, chiefly 
by the gawo or karage ; but it soon after again as- 
serted its eminence as the predominating tree. We 
encamped at length, ignorant as we were of the 
country, a few minutes beyond a small village, the 
first human abode we had met with since we had left 
Darmagwd, half an hour before noon, in the shade of 
a tamarind-tree, surrounded by a thick cluster of 
dum-palms. Certainly the tamarind-tree indicated 
that water was near ; but I was not a little surprised, 
when f Abd-Alla, who was tending the camels, brought 
me the news that a considerable river, now stagnant, 
was close behind us. It was, as I afterwards learnt, 
the " Wani," that branch of the komadugu Waube 
(erroneously called " Y'eu") which runs past Khadeja 
and joins the other branch which comes from Katd- 
gum. We therefore watered our camels here without 
