520 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
AVe waited for you long. AVe will return by land, and 
you shall come to-morrow.” 
Shortly after, at a convenient spot, we went ashore, 
and they accompanied me to the camp. Night fell, and 
found the Sova’s daughters again within my hut, con¬ 
versing on indifferent subjects, whilst the sounds of 
dancing and merriment were heard without. When 
the noise attendant on these festivities had ceased, they 
lay down near the entrance of the hut, beside the 
brightly burning fire. I wanted them to take up their 
quarters once more in the hut of little Mariana ; but 
Opudo declined, saying she was a fawn of the forest, 
and little cared where she took her rest. In the course 
of that day Augusto, who had been scouring the wood 
for game, fell in with a troop of small monkeys, the 
first I had come across in my journey from the coast 
westward. 
On the following morning I paid my visit to the Sova ; 
but being desirous of avoiding further adventures, I got 
out my india-rubber boat, and proceeded to the village 
in that conveyance. The canal I traversed communi¬ 
cated with an arm of the river, 22 yards wide by 19 
feet deep, with a rapid current coursing along at the 
rate of 54 yards per minute. The river divides, 
forming aits, little bays and marshes, which are the 
beds of thick and lofty canes. It is upon these small 
islands, themselves intersected by other channels, which 
form a perfect labyrinth, that these Ambuella villages 
are planted, springing from a marshy soil, on the level 
of the river. The houses are perfectly imbedded in the 
thick tufts of cane. Their walls are formed of reeds ; 
their foundations are stakes driven into the muddy 
ground, and the roofs are composed of thatch. As may 
readily be imagined, they are wretched habitations, 
badly constructed, and affording little effective shelter. 
Outside the doors, suspended from large poles, are 
immense calabashes, in which the inhabitants preserve 
their wax and other articles. The huts themselves are 
filled with calabashes. Indeed, among the Ambuellas 
these useful vegetables perform the office of trunks, 
