368 KAKUAK AND FAJELU COUNTRIES.

very confiding mouse, which at once ate from my hand, showing that it might easily be kept in a cage. Asa rule, the female has three to four young with her; they are usually striped exactly like the parents, but their rusty colour is of a rather darker shade. ‘This was, however, no place for either hunting or collecting, for all the trees had been cut down in the neighbourhood, with the exception of a few solitary tall ones along the bank of the river. J was therefore glad to move on, and after a tedious march through rain and mud, and a night spent by Khor Yembe, an important tributary of the Yei, we passed through an open forest, in which a Xeropetalum was blooming. Then we reached Khor Kobbo, which is enclosed on both sides by broad swampy borders, and sends its rushing waters into the Yei. Two trees thrown over the khor formed a rickety bridge, about sixteen feet above the rapid stream, which was forty feet broad and twelve feet deep. The swampy land on the other side of the khor was literally covered with Parnassia palustris, which could have almost been mistaken for a European variety. A short march led us through a hilly steppe, with swampy depressions, to the station of Rimo, our headquarters in the Kakuak and Fajelu countries, Rimo consists of scattered groups of huts and zeribas, surrounded by fields. It is the centre of a perfect babel of tribes: Kakuak occupy the south and south-east; Fajelu the north and south-west; Mundt the west; a colony of Bari, who have wandered here from the Nile, have their dwellings scattered all about, and the true Marshia occupy Rimo itself. The cultivation of this district does not much differ from what may be seen elsewhere, except that a few very neglected bananas have been planted. Khor Geli, with its swampy banks, would be a remarkably good place on which to cultivate rice, but, of course, no one has ever thought of planting it. Cotton grows here very well. Rimo has suffered much lately from the depredations of elephants, which have broken into the station at night and destroyed the crops. It is very remarkable that I saw no vultures along the whole of my route, their absence being explained by the paucity of cattle, whilst the few goats hardly supply the demands of the population. The Milvus Forskalii, too, which 1s elsewhere so