224 
TEIVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
together. There was one rakuba of which we might occasionally 
avail ourselves ; on the roof of this some of our people slept. 
We took possession of our tookul, creeping through a beehive- 
like portal^ which was also the only aperture to admit light : some 
minutes elapsed ere we could discern the interior of our habitation ; 
but gradually, as our eyes became accustomed to the gloom, two 
angeribs were descried, a large pitcher for water fixed between 
three lopped branches of a tree on a trunk two feet from the 
ground, a cord stretching from the rafters to hang our garments 
on, and a low framework of wood, on which to place the small 
amount of baggage we had. Before sunset we strolled about the 
zariba, and visited a well-kept kitchen garden. Watched with 
interest the return of the cattle — they tell me, in number greatly 
reduced. They were tended by Kytch negroes, who voluntarily 
give their services for their support, consisting of weekly allowances 
of grain and the half of the milk. 
Ibrahim, the agent, says the Kytch are more to be depended upon 
than the Bhol men; their homes being distant, they cannot so 
well walk ofP with the cattle, a feat the Bhol would achieve with 
alacrity. 
This station is occupied by one hundred and six armed men 
from Khartoum, and six elephant hunters who undertake occa- 
sional excursions to the Djour, one day^s journey to the south of 
this. The agent Ibrahim appears a quiet well-conducted man. 
He has but recently returned from the Neangara, in the direc- 
tion we are to proceed. The road hence, ten.days^ stiflp march, 
he describes as choked with high herbage, occasional marshes 
intervene, water sometimes to the shoulders ; and as the soil 
becomes mud during the rainy season, walking is impracticable. 
Ibrahim strongly recommends our remaining here a month, when 
