454 LETTERS TO DR. SCHWEINFURTH.

is the need of it felt, and so the matter is left to private enterprise. JI would set to work at the task myself were I more than a dilettante in geography.

But do not therefore suppose that I am idle. On the contrary I have, alas! scarcely time enough for my most pressing private work, and hence it happens that my preparatory work for an ethnographical map of our territory has by no means come to an end at present, though I have been engaged on it for a long time. I am looking forward very eagerly to a com--parison of the Monbuttu vocabulary with other north-western languages. The oldest people of the country, and those best acquainted with their history, as far as this word is appropriate here, told me that their forefathers came from the north-west, and, after passing a large lake (without any outlet !), reached the Kibali, which they gradually crossed to occupy their present country. Without venturing on further conjectures, I may suggest that an attempt to search out points of resemblance in languages farther to the north might perhaps be successful. For instance, it would be very interesting to compare the proper language of Darfur. A very complete vocabulary of it was compiled at the time of Purdy and Prout’s expeditions, as I have heard from some of the men who accompanied them, but what has become of it I cannot say.

This is a high day for me. I have received letters from Lupton Bey and Dr. Junker, the one written from Dombo on June 2d, the other from “my zertba near Zemio, seven days’ march south-west of (Schweinfurth’s) Dem Guju.” “TI can look back to my last journey in the west with satisfaction, and the more so that I have returned in comparatively good health after my many exertions. The regions I have traversed are more extensive than I supposed. ‘They are nominally under Hgyptian rule, and yield constant supplies of ivory. I have made a circular tour of four and a half months’ duration, travelling from here south-westwards to the Welle in fifteen days, which I reached at a point about four to five days’ march west of its confluence with the Bomokandi. ‘The latter river, with which you must be acquainted (it is the Nomayo), runs up from the south-east, and Bakangai’s and Kanna’s territories skirt its southern banks. A-Babua dwell near, on the southern