302 LADO TO KEDIBA.

before mentioned, were cooing in the tall trees. Otherwise, birds are not plentiful, although red widow-birds (Huplectes ignicolor) climb about the grass stalks, and the confiding grosbeaks (Crithagra leucopygia) warble their varied stanzas to the wanderer from among the acacias. Khor Koda, which we crossed this time much farther to the north than last year, contained about twenty inches of water in a bed ten feet broad ; at high water, however, it overflows the land far and wide, and one has frequently to wait for days before being able to cross it. The banks are sandy, and three to five feet high. The country lying to the west of the hor is completely flooded in the kharif; at present a small portion of it is dry, and after crossing it we arrived at the Bamban swamp, through which we waded; it was in many places over three feet deep. To the right and left of the ford the swamp extends to a distance of about a mile. It is covered with thick grass, except in isolated spots, where many hippopotami and still larger numbers of crocodiles are found. Swarms of dragon-flies flutter above the swamp, and are chased by bee-eaters (Merops albicollis), The rise of the ground after passing the swamp is at once made evident by the presence of whole colonies of a species of Sanseviera (named Zora in the Nyambara idiom), the fibres of which are used in ropemaking. Shortly before arriving at Tombe’s village of Jubba, I noticed cultivated patches of Penicillaria, so rarely seen in the Bari country, and the more common eleusine just running to seed. The village lies upon the top of a hill, and overlooks the district of Lofuta, of which it 1s the chief village.

The rest of the day passed in building huts and making ourselves comfortable, in making hypsometrical observations and calculating the height of the hill. We were obliged to wait here for porters from Moru, for those who had accompanied us from Lad6é belonged to this place, and it would not have been right to take them farther. The sun sank, and myriads of glowworms pursued their fiery course through the still air, whilst the stars twinkled overhead, and the sheet-lightning seemed to set the sky on fire for several minutes at a time.

Chief Tombe had placed his big drum underneath the votive tree which stood in the open space before my hut, and it soon