310 KEDIBA TO BITI.

represented Hvoé Bacche, especially as the beer-jars were in oreat demand.

A number of half-tame zebra-ichneumons ran about the village, as well as several fox-red baboons.

From Morlabba as far as Khor Gurud there is a stretch of very well-cultivated land; just at the ford the khor receives a tributary, which is now dry. Upon a path cut up by elephants and full of holes we wandered through the steppe jungle, which was rendered almost impassable by high grass, until we came to the bed of Khor Arise, which contained only a little water, twenty to thirty inches deep in places. It was fringed by thick Sizygium bushes, which are found in all such khors. For about half an hour we followed this easy road, which is, however, often impracticable for days, and then the path led uphill again to troublesome grass jungle, through which we had laboriously to work our way. Elephants are so numerous here that in an hour’s march we came upon four herds, and saw altogether one hundred and twenty animals. Unfortunately, these colossal creatures destroy the road by sinking into the soft soil and leaving their footprints filled with water, as well as by throwing the trunks of trees across the path, to which obstacles the chaos of grass and thorns proves no pleasant addition. Guinea-fowl and francolins kept flying up every minute from the high grass to the side of the path. In favourable places I noticed a rich growth of yellowish-white fungus, often of considerable dimensions ; whether edible or not I do not know. We rested under a magnificent group of Humboldtias. The Oncoba, which ripens long before this in the south, had only small green fruits here. In the middle of a group of about thirty tall doléb palms the little village of Daso was situated. It was in process of removal, however, as the fields were said to have become “ old,” that is to say, they do not repay cultivation. Nests of a large red ant, constructed of green leaves, and the size of a man’s head, are found upon all the bushes; the bite of these ants is only to be compared to the sensation caused by boiling water on the skin. Numerous bats flew, even by day, around the summits of the doléb palms. Most of the species of bats found here, and especially the large Xanthorpia, do not avoid the light so much as is usually supposed.