380 THROUGH ABAKA COUNTRY TO GOSA.

flowed, was extremely interesting to me, owing to a species of Pandanus, which was growing in a peculiar manner, some of the plants having shot up to a great height before spreading out their fans, whilst others resembled enormous reeds, dividing close to the ground, and forming an impenetrable hedge along the khor. The hook-like thorns on the edges of the leaves and on the under surface of the midrib were very sharp and dangerous to the skin. This plant is called by all the Zande boddumd, by the Abakd bakivé, and by the Mundt langa. ‘This appears to be the most easterly point of its distribution.

The village of Langaza, a Bongbé settlement, is surrounded by durrah-fields; its inhabitants had fled, but were seen peeping out from behind the bushes. It is curious to note that the people here sow eleusine and Hyptis amongst the durrah. I noticed in the “ gallery ” wood near Khor Langa an old friend in the gigantic tree called in Kiganda, mpafu, and which, according to Cameron’s book, is known under the same name on the west side of Tanganyika. In-Abaka this tree is called obbt, in Mundu abbi, in Zande mbiri or mbili, in Makraka dino, and the use of its sweet-smelling resin and of its reddish compact wood, as also the extraction of its red oil from the ereen husks, are known here. ‘Two of the trees I saw were very large, but not so gigantic as those seen in Uganda.

Khor Langa forms the boundary between the Abaka and Mundu countries. The “ gallery ” wood at Khor Krafa, which takes about twenty minutes to cross, surpassed in beauty and in luxuriance of vegetation any I have hitherto seen. In the deep twilight, to which no sunbeam penetrates, ferns, Calladias, Acanthus, and Capparidaceae rivalled each other in the vigour of their growth. ‘The stream foamed over the moss-covered stones in silvery white cascades, and high up in the trees the white coat of the Colobus guereza flashed now and then through the thick entangled foliage. After a short march through the steppe in which these khors are situated, we arrived at an early hour at Khor Aire or Ire, which had a dense barrier of reeds. Its water was of a yellowish colour, and the opposite bank of the river flashed and glittered with mica. After twice fording this khor, we reached the station of Kudurma, which lay to the