TARANGOLE AND CHIEF MAYE. 293 Here and there are high hills similar to the Loronio, and generally crowned with large villages. The little village Loriajo lies, however, in the plain, and immediately beyond it is a boggy thicket, where the sticky loamy soil, into which we sank above the knee, is exceedingly unpleasant. A number of small rivulets cross the road here, all of them rain-torrents coming down from the Lafit range. Thick acacia bush grows rank in the sandy soil, which is sometimes yellow, sometimes white, and extends up to the fields round Trangole, formerly the headquarters of the Danagla, and now a smart little military station close to Khor Koz.

During the short time of its existence, the station has entered into communication with near and more distant districts, and people are often to be found here from the districts of Renga or Irenga, lying farther to the east, and from the Kuron mountains and Loba. The land is splendidly cultivated, has an excellent soil, and, besides possessing numerous herds of cattle and flocks of superior fat sheep, it supports a numerous and very well-disposed community, whose old chief, Maye, now only carries on the business of rainmaking, while the administration is in the hands of his son, Lajur. Viewed from the station, the valley to the south-east becomes narrower and narrower, and appears to be shut in, while almost east-southeast the jagged mountains of the Irenga chain come into sight for the first time; they seem to be higher than the nearer mountains, and they form a long chain with very curiously shaped horns and teeth. The distance from here to Irenga is estimated at three to four good days’ march—but what was meant by one of these day’s marches we were presently to learn. The unexplored countries of Akkara and Musingok, with the rivers of Tu and Ogeloquer, border on Irenga.

The people of Latuka are entirely different in form of face and structure of head, and stature, from the tribes dwelling around them, and must, doubtless, have forced their way here from the east. Their language and customs are also quite peculiar to themselves. I collected examples of the former ;* * The vocabulary collected by Emin Pasha proves conclusively that the Latika are Wakuavi (Masai), and they are coloured as such on Mr, Ravenstein’s map of Eastern Equatorial Africa, published in 1883.