236 FADIBEK TO LABORE.

few months ago, and very important as a junction of the roads leading to Tarangole (two very hard days’ march), Fadibék (two good days’ march), and Labore (three long marches). <A boiling-point observation gave the height of Obbo (which is not, by the bye, on the site of Baker’s Obbo) as more than 3000 feet.

Obbo is the most northerly outlying division of the Shuli country, not counting Ber, which is cut off by Latuka; Latuka tribes dwell to the north-east (Jebel Ifuddu), Bari to the northwest, and Madi to the west. The people have adhered very faithfully to their Shuli manners and customs, and the language spoken in Fajuli is perfectly identical with that spoken here. “Old Kachiba,” the rainmaker, died long ago, and was succeeded by one of his 120 sons, but the people are still hospitable, friendly, and obliging.

Very hilly country, covered with high grass, and in many places with thick brushwood, extends from Khor Ayi, which we forded, to Khor Ovidda, which loses itself in a ravine, and seems in places to be blocked up with boulders. In spite of the mountainous character of the country, it sinks so much that the aneroid fell from 26.56 inches at Obbo to 27.05 inches at the latter Khor, The whole land is hilly, and intersected by very numerous small khors; it is industriously cultivated, and its alternate fields and park land present an exceedingly diversified aspect.

Ogilli, three and a half hours’ distant from Khor Ovidda, is the first and the principal zertba of the district of Fanyiquara, which we entered here, the Ovidda being the boundary both of the Obbo and Shuli districts. The population of Fanyiquara consists of Madi; they are easily recognisable by their language, which is similar to those spoken on the west of the river. After a farewell look at Jebel Okkiri, the march was recommenced, for the chief of Ogilli kindly supplied us at once with men to carry our few loads. The little hors, most of which were dry, became so numerous that in a quarter of an hour’s march we had crossed four of them. We were still in a mountainous country, where the rain was powerful enough to excavate channels even in stone! The ground, which had fallen, began to rise again perceptibly towards the ranges of