Chap. XXIV.—B.P.] 
WOOLWA INDIANS. 
403 
sent, but they were very sliy, being afraid that we 
were bringing the dreaded sickness, cholera, amongst 
them. Their tribe (Woolwas) had suffered severely 
some short time before, and naturally dreaded a re¬ 
petition of the scourge. These Indians had nothing 
with them to show that they had ever been in contact 
with Europeans, except the possession of a few beads. 
Their complexion was of the colour of yellow ochre 
and Indian ink mixed, and their skins resembled that 
of a tapir. The young girl had her face daubed all 
over with a red unctuous substance, which gave her a 
very peculiar appearance, otherwise she would have 
been rather pretty. We bought from them three fish 
about the size of a large carp, called toobay, which 
had been shot with arrows ; they proved an excellent 
addition to the evening meal. Some biscuits were 
given in exchange. Unfortunately I could not afford 
to stop more than a few minutes, as my men were 
anxious to push on, and I particularly wished to see 
the approaches to Kisilala by daylight. 
About eight miles above the Mico the bed of the 
river could be distinctly seen right across. It was so 
shallow here that we could easily touch bottom with a 
paddle held at arm’s length, say eight feet ‘ but as if to 
show that this was not its normal condition, I observed 
a lot of bamboo hanging to the branch of a tree at 
least twenty-five feet above the water, which had evi¬ 
dently been deposited there by a flood. A steamer 
would require very careful handling to bring her 
above this point, which is about two miles below 
Kisilala. 
2 d 2 
