344 
THE PEOPLE CONFIDE IN US. 
season, quantities of ripe grass were stacked for thatch- 
ing purposes, and we could always get a temporary 
shed made to shelter us from the sun. The inhabi- 
tants of Panyoro, on seeing our small party arrive, 
showed a disinclination to admit us inside their vil- 
lages, and the Turks tried to dissuade us from living 
there ; but in our previous travels we had always 
fraternised with the natives, and wished to make no 
difference in the present case. The consequence was 
that the people confided in us, bringing their property 
to be placed in concealment under our beds lest the 
Turks should come and rob them. They also gave us 
small presents of milk, flour, ears of grain, &c. ; and 
one chief kindly brought us a basin of soup and a 
mess of porridge. The soup was very nitrous in taste, 
too much salt of the country having been used. 
Another dish they had was a mixture of uncooked 
flour and water, savoured with the fruit of a date-sized 
plum, the Balanites JEgyptica, Dal. The chiefs had 
a singular mode of salutation, which the common 
people did not venture to copy ; they took our hands 
successively in theirs, lifted them up as high as they 
could, and then allowed them to drop. This custom 
was never seen in Unyoro, Uganda, or south of the 
equator ; and although the hands of the chiefs were 
not very clean, we were glad to submit to the cere- 
mony. After the natives had become familiar with us 
by our shooting animals for them, they got up dances 
similar to the Madi £< quadrille." The men held spears 
over the heads of the women, pointed their elbows at 
them, and bent their heads to the right and left in 
time to the drum-music. The Toorkees did not join 
our men in these dances ; they were encamped outside 
