232 
To the Mbika. 
wind, a half-face of leafy branches, and all insisted 
upon a long rest. I objected, and then “ palaver 
came up.” We were at last frankly told that the 
villages ahead were hostile, that we could not 
proceed further in this direction, and that the 
people of Fakanjok had thought my only object 
was to sight from afar a golden prairie and a blue 
range beyond. The latter is known to the French 
as “Tern,” from a hillock crowned with a huge 
red-trunked tree of that name. 
Opposition was useless, so we turned back some 
twenty minutes to a junction, and took the south¬ 
eastern instead of the eastern line. Here the 
country was higher and drier, more hilly and 
gravelly, the aneroid showing some 900 feet 
(29*11)-; it would be exceptionally healthy in any 
but the rainy season. Before the afternoon had 
well set in, a camping ground had been chosen in 
the tall, thin forest, near the confluence of two 
dwarf streams, whose vitreous waters, flowing over 
fine sand and quartz pebbles, were no small 
recommendation. As the cooking proceeded, 
frowning brows relaxed, and huge fires put to 
flight ill temper and the sandfly. I had proposed 
lashing my hammock to one of the tree-stumps, 
which are here some ten feet tall, the people, who 
swing themselves for the purpose of felling, declare 
the upper wood to be softer than below. “ Public 
opinion,” however, overruled me, and made it fast 
