242 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
After consulting with Ibrahim^ a negro was sent on to a sheet of 
water, described as an bourns march in advance, to report if the 
cattle were there, or if they had been driven on to the Djour; but, 
after waiting several hours for his return, we concluded he had 
either bolted or gone on to the Djour. At three p.m. a sharp 
shower forced us to seek better quarters, and we retired to a stage 
hut in the centre of a stockade, gained by climbing a crude kind 
of ladder, formed of a single log of wood, with occasional stumps of 
branches, few and far between, for steps. The entrance to this 
elevated hut was oval, large enough only to admit, in a crawling 
position, a single individual at a time. This being the only opening, 
our domicile proved oppressively close ; and seating ourselves as near 
the portals as compatible with the driving rain, we literally gasped 
for air. The interior was clean, the floor and sides being neatly 
plastered with mud, and washed with a solution containing a strong 
oxide of iron. On the top of the walls or sides a shelf for stowing 
away provisions occupied one-half of the small tenement, but not 
an article of furniture or crockery adorned it. Our tent was 
pitched within the stockade, and taking possession of it as soon as 
possible, dinner became desirable ; but as all provision had been 
taken on, we were compelled to eat only of roasted ground-nuts. 
At sunset Medineh arrived, bringing with him a few of the old and 
some newly-hired porters bearing some of our traps ; when, how- 
ever, they discovered the cattle were in advance, they were wonder- 
fully disconcerted at the prospect of no beef for supper, as they, 
also, were half famished. 
- November \Qth . — It was reported guinea-fowl had been seen on 
the outskirts of the corn-field, and at sunrise I, with a sharp lad, 
Babuckar, went in search of them : we, however, contrived to lose 
