Chap. XXXV. MOUNT ALANTI'KA AND THE BE'NUWE'. 465 
It happens but rarely that a traveller does not feel 
disappointed when he first actually beholds the prin- 
cipal features of a new country, of which his ima- 
gination has composed a picture, from the description 
of the natives ; but although I must admit that the 
shape and size of the Alantika, as it rose in rounded 
lines from the flat level, did not exactly correspond 
with the idea which I had formed of it, the appear- 
ance of the river far exceeded my most lively ex- 
pectations. None of my informants had promised me 
that I should just come upon it at that most inter- 
esting locality — the Tepe* — where the mightier 
river is joined by another of very considerable size, 
and that in this place I was to cross it. My ar- 
rival at this point, as I have stated before, was a 
most fortunate circumstance. As I looked from the 
bank over the scene before me, I was quite enchanted, 
although the whole country bore the character of a 
desolate wilderness ; but there could scarcely be any 
great traces of human industry near the river, as, 
during its floods, it inundates the whole country on 
both sides. This is the general character of all the 
Mr. Petermann changed the e into an 1, from mere mistake ; and 
I do not know whether the members of the Chadda expedition 
had sufficient authority for writing the name in this way. The 
word belongs to the Batta language, where water is called " bee/' 
or "be;" but in kindred dialects it is called "bi." "Nuwe" means 
the mother ; and the whole name means " mother of water." The 
name, therefore, properly is of the feminine gender. 
* " Tepe " is aPullo, or rather Fulfdlde word, meaning "junction," 
"confluence," which by the Western Ful be would be called "fotterde 
maje." In Hausa the name is " rnagangamu." 
VOL. II. H H 
