252 THE EXPLORATION OF THE NIGER The chief of the latter told us how glad he was to see some white men before he died. He added that he would like to give us some sheep, but he understood that we never ate anything except the flesh of black animals, and he had none of that colour.

I said that the colour of the wool did not trouble us at all ; all we cared for was the quality of the flesh, and he went and fetched us a fine ram. It was the marabouts, , who, to add to the probability of their report that we were sorcerers, had made this assertion about black animals. There is a custom in the Sudan that animals given as presents should be as white as possible, as a sign of peace between donor and receiver. We were now told that Bokar Wandietdu, chief of the Logomaten, had assembled a column of troops and was about to attack us.

At Karu the mountains were pointed out to us which line the famous rapid of Labezenga, which we expected to reach the next day. A guide was given to us who was said to be wonderfully clever, but we saw no particular sign of his intelligence.

It was on March 14 that we first saw the terrible Labezenga rapid, and 1 am very sure that we shall none of us ever forget it.

Our guide began the day by performing a number of mummeries, the aim of which appears to have been to make various evil genii propitious to us. From a leather bag he took out a lot of fiat and shaly flints which had