All heed for culture cast away:
And Aleck of their guild is free,
Nor kith nor kin remain his joy,
New pastimes every hour employ,
For gypsy, heart and soul, is he!”[75]
It was on the 22nd of January that I prepared to resume my wanderings. In the evening I took my leave of Sheikh Seebehr, and attended by six bearers, with which he had provided me, I departed from the Seriba.
My first destination was the settlement of one of the companies associated with Kurshook Ali, which was situated on the Beery, about twenty miles from Dehm Nduggo. The route for the most part was in a south-westerly direction, over elevated ground that was channeled by no less than ten running streams and khor beds, and along country that was splendidly adorned with goodly forests. The defiles extended from the south-east to the north-west, and stretched away towards the valley of the Beery, which ran parallel to our course at a few miles’ distance to the right.
The first irregularity in the soil which crossed our way consisted of a deep river-course, which was now quite dry and shaded over by thick foliage; the second was made by the stream of the Uyeely, which, flowing out from a narrow streak of thicket that corresponded very much in its vegetation with the galleries of the Niam-niam, with deliberate current passed onwards to the west. Midway between the Uyeely and the next stream, called the Uyissobba (the native word for “a buffalo”), which consisted of a series of pools that ranged themselves in a continuous series along an open swamp-steppe, there stood a grove of tall trees. I was much surprised to find the frequent occurrence of the same species of Cycadea which I had observed in the Niam-niam lands, but which here, through the absence of any underwood, made a majestic upward growth, and expanded their noble fans at the summit of a stately stem. The Kredy Nduggo call the encephalartus “kotto,” and my attendants acquainted me with the fact that they could manufacture a sort of beer out of the central portion of the stem, which was marrowy and full of meal. Some of the specimens that I saw had great cylindrical stems two feet high, a contrast very decided to those that I had previously seen, which were all quite low upon the ground. The male flowering heads were often as many as eight or ten upon a single stem. In the shadowy light admitted by the tall Humboldtiæ that towered above, their stiff crowns had all the appearance of being alien to the scene and a decoration imported from some foreign soil.
