chap, ix.] SCARCITY OF SALT AMONG THE LATOOKAS. 24 1 
Fortunately for my party, who were not cattle lifters, 
there was the usual abundance of game, and I could 
always supply myself and people with delicious wild 
ducks and geese. We never were tired of this light 
food, as we varied their preparation. Sometimes I 
was able to procure a goat, on which occasion a grand 
dish was made, the paunch being arranged as a Scotch 
“ haggis ” of wild fowls' livers and flesh minced, with 
the usual additions. My garden was flourishing ; we 
had onions, beans, melons, yams, lettuce, and radishes, 
which had quickly responded to several invigorating 
showers; the temperature was 85° in the shade during 
the hottest hours of the day, and 72° at night. 
Salt is not procurable in Latooka; the natives 
seldom use it, as it is excessively difficult to make it 
in any quantity from the only two sources that will 
produce it; the best is made from goat's-dung; this is 
reduced to ashes, and saturated; the water is then 
strained off, and evaporated by boiling. Another 
quality is made of a peculiar grass, with a thick fleshy 
stem, something like a sugar-cane ; the ashes of this 
produce salt, but by no means pure. The chief of 
Latooka would eat a handful of , salt greedily that I 
gave him from my large supply, and I could purchase 
supplies with this article better than with beads. 
On the 4th of June, Ibrahim and eighty-five men 
started for Obbo in charge of about 400 cows and 
1,000 goats. 
Shortly after their departure, a violent thunder¬ 
storm, attended with a deluge of rain, swept over the 
country, and flooded the Latooka river and the various 
pools that formed my game-preserves. 
I looked forward to good duck-shooting on the 
morrow, as a heavy storm was certain to be followed 
by large arrivals. 
On the morning of the 5th, I was out at an early 
hour, and in a very short time I killed eight ducks and 
geese. There was a certain pool surrounded by a 
small marsh within half a mile of my camp, that 
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