MADI TO TAKKE. 133 Our porters for this marcli were tlie only men I have met in Africa who seemed able to comprehend that a box has a top and bottom, and who remembered the injunction, " This side up, with care." Usually the boxes were carried upside down, and when a man put one down in the hut, he generally contrived that the bottom should be at the top, and the keyhole next the wall.

At 4.30 the next morning I awoke, and tried to get the men to start, as there was a very bright moon, and I wished to avoid a long march in the heat of the day ; but, as I have mentioned, the natives are so much averse to marching by moonlight or before the dew is dried, that all my endeavours were in vain, and on this occasion I was glad we had not started till after sunrise. We had a hard fight for three hours through a dense grass and thorn jungle, often having great difficulty in finding the path, as the elephants had almost obliterated all traces of it.

After passing through a bad swamp, called by the natives Nimine-kassie, our attention was called to a tree with cut deeply into it—who could have done this ? The rest of the march to Takke was much pleasanter, as the jungle was not so thick ; there were large quantities of ironstone, and also dhurra fields and cotton plantations—the first cotton we had seen growing in Africa.

The huts in the village of Takke had basketwork sides, the roofs being conical, while the yards, made