AN INQUISITIVE COMPANY. 277 could be used for a long time as a fixed mark in the construction of our route.

The descent from the plateau on which Fatiko stands is noticeable at once, although the country seems to rise to the south in parallel chains of hills. Muddy channels, reminding one of those in Uganda by their blackness, though not by their depth, run between the rows of hills, and blocks of conglomerate are scattered on the ridges. Here and there is a little -brushwood, and, wherever a few trees form a clump, there are whole nests of Amomum, the agreeable, sourish pulp of which is much relished by everybody. ‘The Arabic name used here for Amomum is Abu Hamira ; in Unyoéro and Uganda, where the plant is called Matunguru, the fruit is eaten with banana. beer (mwénge).

A short distance before Kanakék we had to cross Khor Bara again. Scattered zertbas full of huts, from which the sound of merry singing reached our ears, form, together with the village, the district of Loggolum, which is rich in corn and sesame. ‘Throughout the Shuli country, though plenty of red durrah and Penicillaria are grown, eleusine is the more important grain, because it alone produces a strong, bitter drink (called kongo by the Shuli), for here too drinking very often takes the place of eating. I have seldom met with so numerous and inquisitive a company as at this place—women, children, and men, a motley crowd, with their glittering iron, brass, and copper ornaments, many of the women carrying their infants on their backs tied up in goat-skins and covered with gourd-shells.

The undulations of the country before us were so considerable that even the mountains of Fatiko were hidden from view. J succeeded, however, in taking, from the top of an ant-hill, the bearings of Mounts Goma, Kaka, and Kalavinya, which crossed my former bearings. A very long march took us from Kanakék to Koki. The hills, which run parallel to the road and shut it in to the right, 7.¢., the west, form the watershed between the Unyama and the Asua, and therefore all the streams we crossed that day ran to the left, that is, eastwards to the Asua, while along our former route all the khors flowed to the Unyama, the main stream of which we crossed near Fatiko. The humidity of the soil in this tract