UOOOO AND IEAMBA TO NWURU. 67 days. After leaving Grange the country rose steadily till near the end of the second day's journey, when the aneroids showed a height of 4880 feet above the sea-level ; from this point the land gradually sloped towards the west. The whole country was more or less covered with forest, the open spaces being few and far between. Elephants, buffaloes, rhinoceroses and giraffes were apparently numerous, with various species of antelopes, and large flocks of guinea-fowl and partridges were frequently met with, and at night lions, leopards, and hyaenas used to prowl round the camp.

From Usuri (the Mgongo Tembo of Stanley) we went to Ushuri. Here lived Mganga, the head niampara of our caravan, and as we approached the village the women came rushing out to meet us, uttering shrill cries of welcome similar to those known as zaggareet in Egypt. At the gate of the village, which was fortified by a strong palisade of poles ornamented with human and other skulls, Mganga's father, a white-haired venerable-looking old man, met us, and greeted us most affectionately ; then he and another member of the family took a live fowl and held it over the threshold of the gate, and all were asked to step over it, after which it was killed ; the ceremony being supposed to bring '" good luck."

The next four or five days' march would be, we were told, through a similar jungle to that which 'I- 2