JOURNEY FROM KATUNGA TO BOUSSA. 
87 
stripes of cloth. He said he would take any thing that was given 
to him. The boys had hollow gourds with stones or beans in them, 
with which they kept time by holding them in one hand and 
beating them against the other. The musician himself was past 
the middle age, his beard being tinged with gray, and neither too 
long nor too short ; his face inclining more to long than oval, with 
a nose slightly hooked ; his forehead high ; his eyes large, bright, 
and clear, with a kind of indefinable expression of half rogue and half 
a merry fellow, and when he sang he sometimes looked sublime ; 
his mouth and teeth were good ; his voice clear and melodious ; his 
stature about the middle size, and spare form ; his dress was a 
white turban and large sky-blue tobe or shirt. He accompanied his 
instrument with his voice, the boys joining in chorus. His songs 
were extempore. I should have taken one down, but found they 
were all about myself ; and a number of visitors coming in, I gave 
him fifty cowries and sent him away rejoicing. Received a present 
of a sheep, yams, milk, eggs, and a goat, from the governor. 
I went outside the town with Yarro’s messenger to see the 
kongkonie tree which I have before mentioned, and from the seeds 
of which they are said to extract the poison for their arrows. The 
tree is a parasite (meaning probably a creeper), about the thickness 
of a man’s thigh at the root, from which shoot up several stems, 
that ascend the large tree at the root of which it grows, twisting 
itself round the stem and branches to the top of the tree ; the bark 
of the young branches is like the darkest of the hazel ; the stem and 
older branches smooth and whitish, like the bark of the ash ; the 
flower, which is now fading, has five leaves tapering to a point, 
from which they have a string about two inches in length hanging ; 
they are about the size of our primrose, but of a darker yellow ; 
the leaves of the tree are rough and furry, exuding a gum that 
sticks to the fingers ; the part which grows from the flower and 
contains the seeds is about a foot and a half in length, and one and 
a half or two inches in circumference in the thickest part ; the seeds 
