CHAP. Yin.] 
RETURN TO LATOOKA. 
22 7 
started for Latooka in company with Ibrahim and his 
men, who were thoroughly sick of the Obbo climate. 
Before parting, a ceremony had to be performed by 
Katchiba. His brother was to be our guide, and he 
was to receive power to control the elements as deputy- 
magician during the journey, lest we should be wetted 
by the storms, and the torrents should be so swollen 
as to be impassable. 
With great solemnity Katchiba broke a branch from 
a tree, upon the leaves of which he spat in several 
places. This branch, thus blessed with holy water, 
was laid upon the ground, and a fowl was dragged 
around it by the chief; and our horses were then 
operated on precisely in the same manner as had been 
enacted at Farajoke. This ceremony completed, he 
handed the branch to his brother (our guide), who 
received it with much gravity, in addition to a magic 
whistle of antelope's horn that he suspended from his 
neck. All the natives wore whistles similar in appear¬ 
ance, being simply small horns in which they blew, 
the sound of which was considered either to attract 
or to drive away rain, at the option of the whistler. 
No whistle was supposed to be effective unless it had 
been blessed by the great magician Katchiba. The 
ceremony being over, all commenced whistling with 
all their might; and taking leave of Katchiba, with an 
assurance that we should again return, we started 
amidst a din of “toot too too-ing” upon our journey. 
Having an immense supply of ammunition at Latooka, 
I left about 200 lbs. of shot and ball with Katchiba; 
therefore my donkeys had but little to carry, and we 
travelled easily. 
That night we bivouacked at the foot of the east- 
side of the pass at about half-past five. Ibrahimawa, 
the Bornu man whom I have already described as 
the amateur botanist, had become my great ally in 
searching for all that was curious and interesting. 
Proud of his knowledge of wild plants, no sooner 
was the march ended than he commenced a search 
Q 2 
