A HERCULEAN CHIEF. 329 of their roofs decorated by star-shaped straw bundles. The wealth of this district in cereals is very great, especially in sesame, which we saw being hung up to dry; it is on this account that the Danagla have established zeribas here, which form a great emporium for the slave-trade.

The nearer we approached the hill, the more stony became the ground and the more sparse the growth of plants. The masses of rock between which we passed, and which formed the hills, were mostly completely bare, and scorched by the sun. It can easily be understood that in such a district the natives were able for a long time to successfully withstand the inroads of the Danagla. The descent to Dolla led through high grass as far as the black alluvial bottom-land, where stalks. of durrah, often more than two fingers thick, shoot up to the height of twelve feet. Dolla is a large village, with many piledwellings; it belongs to the district of Jirri, which name Petherick gives to a village. The men’s straw caps reminded me of the southern Nyam-Nyam; broad-bladed spears and weighty wooden clubs, ike those of the Dinka, constitute their arms. In spite of their ornaments of fresh foliage and masses of iron ornaments and lip plates, the women are, I think, the most ugly that I have ever seen. Large beehives of the usual shape hung on all the trees, the production of honey being very large. The wax has up to the present been thrown away.

In the open steppe wood, which extends as far as the small village of Ngorre, there were hundreds of small mushroomshaped habitations of termites made from the thick grey clay. The high red structures of the Termes bellicosus are hardly ever found on such ground. The village was completely filled with small fish, laid in the sun to dry, and giving out an intolerable stench, which, however, did not seem to affect the Negroes. A group of high doléb palms marks the situation of Moddoberi, the residence of Dojera, the chief of this district. He was a man of herculean frame, and very well proportioned. The form of his face, his expression, and his large beard gave him the appearance of a Nubian. Report says that he once killed a buffalo with a lance, and a sight of him makes it easy to believe. Hospitality does not seem to be well understood