288 FATIKO TO FAUVERA.

one of which was kindly given up to us at once. A difficult stretch of country without water was said to lie before us. The houses of this village of Fachéra were a good deal like Wanyéro houses, divided into compartments by cane partitions, and padded with hay. But the granaries were totally different, being oven-shaped. The house utensils were of the usual description, and hunting weapons were conspicuous. ‘The day before we arrived, a buffalo had been killed and eaten. Tobacco, Helmia (of which only the bulbs are eaten), Lubia, three kinds of gourd, sesame, maize, and Vigna were cultivated. Towards evening a large assemblage of Lango collected; they had never seen a white man, and my leather leggings, reaching to the knee, which they called “ elephant’s legs,” particularly interested them.

The next was indeed a march! Grass of a height and closeness rare even in Unyoro, and dripping with dew, had literally to be broken through, for, as soon as we had left the village, there was no road of any kind. As I had taken the lead, I had, of course, the first and full enjoyment of the grass, thorns, and water, and, at a temperature of 63° Fahr., to have to crawl, as wet as a drowned rat, through bushes, is unpleasant even in Central Africa. It was scarcely possible to take compass bearings, everything was so wet, and the grass thrust itself so impertinently even into our ears and eyes. ‘The first clearing was reached after about two hours and three-quarters’ march, and was hailed with joy, for we could dry ourselves there in the sun. The delay—our rate of marching could not have been more than two miles an hour—was made up for by a quick march on the better ground we had now reached, where the men ran to warm themselves, for a cool wind was blowing. At Modo, our old night quarters, which we reached shortly after midday, the water, always scanty enough, had been drunk up by elephants and buffaloes, and so we had to go on with thirst unquenched for two hours and a quarter longer to Ras-el-Fil. There we found water in a row of holes, which tasted good after a march of eight hours. From this place we returned to Fatiko by the road described above.