CHIEF LATOME’S VILLAGE. 233 dug in its bed.’ This would be a fine place to cultivate rice! But now the crowned cranes, swans, knob-billed geese, and storks are undisturbed lords of the flooded land, which with so little trouble might yield a thousandfold profit. Game also abounds here, but buffaloes and lions are less common. Hyzenas, dangerous only to goats and sheep, are numerous. The population was busy at this time tilling the fields with crescent-shaped pieces of iron fixed to strong bamboo handles, ‘often ten feet long. A visit to Latome gave us an opportunity of seeing his village. By constructing small stone walls round the hill, a row of small terraces, one above another, had been made, on which separate zeribas and huts were built close together, each of them surrounded by a bam-| boo fence backed by wood, and made so strong that a musketball could scarcely penetrate them. Loronio is one of the strongest positions in the country, indeed almost impregnable, on account of its situation upon the mountain, its thickly packed zeribas, separated only by steep narrow lanes, its rows of palisades and bamboo walls, and the fact that its inhabitants are always prepared for war. A number of watchtowers, often three storeys high, afford the watchmen an uninterrupted view over the country.

Latome received me in a zeréba near the summit of the hill, and close by the cattle-yard. The zeriba is composed of about ten very cleanly kept huts, with roofs made of palmleaves, and about double the number of granaries. Latome is an elderly gentleman of medium height and rather pleasant features. He bears the Latuka marks, formed by six scars in two sets of three each, upon his temples. He is a very clever talker, and is known and feared as cunning and untrustworthy. That occasionally his words are followed by deeds is proved by the fact that not many years ago he destroyed 103 Danagla, notwithstanding their superior arms. He has always shown himself very friendly and liberal towards me, although generally accused of avarice. On this occasion we received presents of honey, ivory, and cattle, return gifts having, of course, to be made.

Meantime a motley crowd assembled in the yard—women _and girls, the former with leather aprons, the latter entirely