324 
TRAVELS m AFRICA. 
Chap. XXXI. 
like the common bulrush, and its stalk is triangu- 
lar. The thicket was interwoven by a climbing plant 
with yellow flowers, called " b6rbuje " by the natives, 
while on the surface of the water was a floating plant 
called, very facetiously, by the natives, " fanna-billa- 
bago " (the homeless fanna). This creek was called 
" Ngiruwa." 
Then turning a little more to the north, and 
passing still through deep water full of grass, and 
most fatiguing for the horses, while it seemed most 
delightful to me, after my dry and dreary journey 
through this continent, we reached another creek, 
called li Dimbeber." Here I was so fortunate as to 
see two small boats, or " makara," of the Budduma, 
as they are called by the Kaniiri, or Yedina, as they 
call themselves, the famous pirates of the Tsad. They 
were small flat boats, made of the light and narrow 
wood of the " fogo," about twelve feet long, and 
managed by two men each ; as soon as the men saw 
us, they pushed their boats off from the shore. They 
were evidently in search of human prey ; and as we 
had seen people from the neighbouring villages, who 
had come here to cut reeds to thatch their huts anew 
for the rainy season, we went first to inform them of 
the presence of these constant enemies of the inha- 
bitants of these fertile banks of the lagoon, that they 
might be on their guard ; for they could not see them, 
owing to the quantity of tall reeds with which the 
banks and the neighbouring land was overgrown. 
We then continued our watery march. The sun 
