Chap. XXXIII. 
THE BA'ZA TRIBE. 
409 
of country for about two miles and a half, we reached 
the deserted " ngaufate," or encampment of Bu-Bakr, 
a brother of Mohammed Lowel, the governor of A'dam* 
awa, who had last year made an expedition into these 
districts, and stationing his army on this spot, had 
overrun the country in all directions. The encamp- 
ment consisted of small round huts made of branches 
and grass, such as the guro caravan generally erects 
daily on its "zango" or halting-place. Here we 
began to quicken our pace, as we were now at the 
shortest distance from the seats of the Baza, a power- 
ful and independent pagan tribe, with a language, or 
probably dialect, of their own, and peculiar customs, 
who live at the foot of the eastern mountain-chain, 
while we left on our right Kibak and some other 
Marghi villages. In order to lessen a little the 
fatigue of the march, my attentive companion Billa- 
ma brought me a handful of " gaude," a yellow fruit 
of the size of an apricot, with a very thick peel, and, 
instead of a rich pulp, five large kernels filling almost 
the whole interior, but covered with a thin pulp of a 
very agreeable taste, something like the gonda. 
At half-past nine, when the forest was tolerably 
clear, we obtained a view of a saddle mount at some 
distance on our right, on the other side of which, as I 
was informed, the village Womde is situated : further 
westward lies U'gu, and, at a still greater distance, 
Gaya. Meanwhile we pushed on with such haste — 
the old MaLlem and Bu-Sad, on horseback, driving my 
two weak camels before them as fast as they could — 
