532 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXXVII. 
to leave it, and struck off to the west into the thickest 
covert of the wood, where the camels with their 
luggage had some difficulty in passing through, espe- 
cially as the soil was cracked and rent in all directions. 
Having trudged on in this way for about two hours, 
and feeling sure that we were not pursued, we re- 
turned to the path, but left it again about noon, and, 
pursuing another track, reached Lahaula, a village 
of unlucky memory, on the western side. 
But this time we were well received, not 
only by 'Aisha, but also by his wild and pas- 
sionate son, who became a great friend of 
mine, and, having received from me a present 
of a knife, brought me three fowls in return, 
while his father sent tiiwo for all my people. 
I sketched the danisko, or hand-bill, of my friend, 
which was of a peculiarly regular shape. 
Friday, ^n l eavm g Lahaula in the morning, we 
July nth. a g a i n preferred the covert to the beaten 
path; but after we had gone round K6fa, which 
Billama thought it better to avoid, we returned to 
our well-known road parallel to the river and the 
mountain-chain beyond, and reached I'ssege without 
any accident, early in the afternoon. There, too, my 
reception was very different from that which I had 
experienced on my going ; and I was received with 
the utmost kindness and hospitality into the house of 
a wealthy family at the northern end of the village, 
and quartered in a neat little hut, the walls of which 
consisted of thatch, like the roof, but were plastered 
