194 A VISIT TOeTEE MONBULTU.

woods, who here correspond to the bushmen of the south, I need not repeat myself, but will only correct an error into which even experienced explorers and collectors have fallen. The Akka have neither lances nor spears, but make exclusive use of the bow and arrow, and the so-called Akka lances which have been sent to Kurope are either the long Mabode or the short Momyutt weapons.

Our stay in Bellima was rendered somewhat unpleasant by constant rain, but the little spare time I had after my official duties were accomplished, was completely filled up indoors with making anthropological measurements, collecting notes, making vocabularies, and preparing and conserving specimens. The early morning hours afforded me, however, rich and interesting zoological spoil, but the prevailing damp was a great drawback —never mind, a new district lies before me.

The march from Bellima to Tingazi, or Tingazizi, as its inhabitants call it, can be accomplished in three rather long days, that is, supposing that the two streams which have to be forded do not either block the road or flood the land. We had, however, no trouble of this kind, but Gambari had taken it into his head, doubtless for some important political reason, to lead us right through desert and primeval forest, avoiding all the villages, and although this gave me the opportunity of becoming acquainted with a good specimen of unadulterated African scenery, it caused us an extra day’s march.

I have mentioned woods so often, that it may be well to explain what I mean by them. It is a mistake to imagine that on entering Monbuttu from the north you will immediately meet with dark impenetrable woods. Magnificent “ gallery ” woods, in which all the marvels of vegetation unfold themselves before the enchanted gaze, often border to a considerable distance even the smallest brook. Every declivity in the ground is covered by trees and bushes, and on the old clearings and the cultivated spots, Flora’s wild and cultured offspring are mingled, forming often completely impenetrable walls. The region, however, of immense forests, in which one may wander for hours without seeing a sunbeam, and where one hears the rain beating upon the summits of the trees without feeling a drop, commences only a little to the west of the A-Zandé