360 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

fear of lions that he obliged me to return to the shore. Certainly, this is the paradise of wild beasts. Such convenient lairs they can find in no other part of the world, and the thousands of gazelles and antelopes that range through the wilderness furnish them with a choice bill of fare. The trees and vines were nearly all new to me. I noticed in particular, a succulent vine, resembling the cactus and cereus families, but with square, fluted joints. It grew so thickly as frequently to conceal entirely the tree that supported it, I also saw a shrub with leaves like the ivy, but a large, purple, bell-shaped flower, and another with delicate, fern-like leaves of a darkgreen color, and white, fragrant blossoms. There was a greater variety in the vegetable world than I had yet seen.

What must be the splendor of the land during the rainy season ! I found a peculiar fascination in tracing the wild paths through the thickets. It was a labyrinth to which there was no end, and the sense of danger gave a spice to its richness and novelty. Occasionally, I saw large holes in the ground, which my attendant said were those of serpents. No gazelle was to be seen, and when I reached the shore again, the wild geese had left. The wind fell at sunset, and the sailors rowed cheerily down stream, singing the while a barbaric chorus, which they had learned from the slaves brought from Fazogl.

The sun, next morning, showed us a very different landscape from that of the previous two days. The river was broader, but the shores were clothed with a more scanty vegetation, and the few islands in the stream were but beds of sand.

When the men stopped for breakfast we were in the neighborhood of a village of Hassaniyehs, as I had previously conjectured, from the camels and donkeys grazing among the thorns.