MASINDI AND CHIEF ANFINA. 21 either side. Sharp and prickly Cyperus and Vossia grasses intermingle with randia and mimosas. Quite unexpectedly one gets a sudden blow from some hidden tree-stump, or a tear from some prickly thorn, of which the most destructive are thistles, six feet high, with large leaves, snow-white on their under side, and round white or purple heads. From this point the elevation of the land increases considerably ; many mountains rise in the midst of the high hills. The drainage is now directed towards the east or north. Banana eroves alternate with large rounded blocks of quartz and gneiss rubble. We marched rapidly on until we reached the station of Masindi, not to be mistaken for Baker’s residence of the same name in Kabréga’s country. A motley confusion of huts and straw fences surrounded by a stout stockade of tree-trunks forms this newly built station, which is situated upon the flattened summit of a bare iron-clay hill, and which obtains .its water from a dribbling brook at the foot of the hill. The place is surrounded by extensive fields of sweet potatoes.

Anfina, chief of the whole of the Magtngo and Shifalu districts, as well as ruler of a part of the Lango country, has his headquarters here. He is a portly, well-dressed man of middle age, whose light complexion, orthognate face, and well-developed ears, as also his white teeth and well-shaped nails, betray at once his descent from the Wahuma, the wellknown light-complexioned shepherd race. Anfina, whose acquaintance I had already made, is distinguished from other chiefs by a certain inborn tact; he never asks for anything. After receiving a few presents, and telling me that his authority extends now far into the Lango country, he offered me guides and porters in case I should wish to make a journey thither, for the Lango will not act as porters. He was surrounded by a number of these handsome people, easily recognisable by their curious wigs, and the peculiar way they dress the hair, and also by the copper rings which pierce their lower lips and ears; but although I took much trouble to ascertain something about their country, I was not successful, for they seemed to be frightened at the sight of a white man, the like of whom ' they had never seen before.