306 LADO TO KEDIBA.

fastened to the waist-belt, and is not even laid aside when dancing.

The swamp of Lere, at the base of the hill, is a flat covered with thick grasses, nearly three miles broad; a rut running through it represents the path. On account of the long season of drought, the water even in the worst places did not exceed elghteen inches in depth. The passage, however, through the decaying slippery grasses was very unpleasant. When the swamp is full it empties a very considerable quantity of water into Khor Koda. From this point the road passed through broad stretches of grass, broken here and there by patches of thick brushwood; it was also crossed by a number of small brooks and swamps. Besides Anona, the most characteristic trees and bushes were Sarcocephalus, Oncoba, and many acacias, small groups of Terminalia, and larger ones of Vatica, especially where the moisture was considerable. We had to wander through a rather monotonous stretch of country before reaching the boundary of the Nyambara district, which is formed by the swamp of Lukomukui. Reddish sand-patches, brushwood, and broad swamps followed one another, and we had also to cross small brooks, having large granite blocks strewn upon their banks. ‘The Nyambara country borders upon Kederu, which is inhabited by a tribe of the same name, whose chief, Jorube (called Wod Loron by the Danagla), lives in the village of Kediba, which we reached at midday. Dokhn-fields and a solitary small doléb palm were passed upon the road. As the village only consists of the chiefs huts, it is small, but a numerous Negro population has settled around it in small open hamlets. The huts are very small, low, and round, are constructed of wood, and have very shapely roofs, formed of grass layers, so neatly placed one above another as to look as if trimmed by shears. Near to the huts are graves marked by large pyramids of stones.