The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile Sources

by Sir Samuel White Baker

After a march of about twelve miles from the top of the pass, we arrived at the chief village of Obbo. The rain fell in torrents, and, soaked to the skin, we crawled into a dirty hut. This village was forty miles S.W. of Tarrangolle, my head-quarters in Latooka.

The natives of Obbo are entirely different to the Latookas, both in language and appearance. They are not quite naked, except when going to war, on which occasion they are painted in stripes of red and yellow; but their usual covering is the skin of an antelope or goat, slung like a mantle across the shoulders. Their faces are well formed, with peculiarly fine-shaped noses. The headdress of the Obbo is remarkably neat, the woolly hair being matted and worked with thread into a flat form like a beaver's tail, and bound with a fine edge of raw hide to keep it in shape. This, like the head-dress of Latooka, requires many years to complete.

From Obbo to the Southeast all is mountainous, the highest points of the chain rising to an elevation of four or five thousand feet above the general level of the country; to the south, although there are no actual mountains, but merely a few isolated hills, the country distinctly rises.

The entire drainage is to the west and north-west, in which direction there is a very perceptible inclination. The vegetation of Obbo, and the whole of the west side of the mountain range, is different from that upon the east side; the soil is exceedingly rich, producing an abundance of Guinea grass, with which the plains are covered. This country produces nine varieties of yams, many of which grow wild in the forests. There is one most peculiar species, called by the natives "Collolollo," that I had not met with in other countries. This variety produces several tubers at the root, and also upon the stalk; it does not spread upon the ground, like most of the vines that characterise the yams, but it climbs upon trees or upon any object that may tempt its tendrils. From every bud upon the stalk of this vine springs a bulb, somewhat kidney-shaped; this increases until, when ripe, it attains the average size of a potato.

So prolific is this plant, that one vine will produce about 150 yams: they are covered with a fine skin of a greenish brown, and are in flavour nearly equal to a potato, but rather waxy.

There are many good wild fruits, including one very similar to a walnut in its green shell; the flesh of this has a remarkably fine flavour, and the nut within exactly resembles a horse-chestnut in size and fine mahogany colour. This nut is roasted, and, when ground and boiled, a species of fat or butter is skimmed from the surface of the water: this is much prized by the natives, and is used for rubbing their bodies, being considered as the best of all fats for the skin; it is also eaten.

Among the best of the wild fruits is one resembling raisins; this grows in clusters upon a large tree. Also a bright yellow fruit, as large as a Muscat grape, and several varieties of plums. None of these are produced in Latooka. Ground-nuts are also in abundance in the forests; these are not like the well-known African ground-nut of the west coast, but are contained in an excessively hard shell. A fine quality of flax grows wild, but the twine generally used by the natives is made from the fibre of a species of aloe. Tobacco grows to an extraordinary size, and is prepared similarly to that of the Ellyria tribe.

When ripe, the leaves are pounded in a mortar and reduced to a pulp; the mass is then placed in a conical mould of wood, and pressed. It remains in this until dry, when it presents the shape of a loaf of sugar, and is perfectly hard. The tobacco of the Ellyria tribe is shaped into cheeses, and frequently adulterated with cowdung. I had never smoked until my arrival in Obbo, but having suffered much from fever, and the country being excessively damp, I commenced with Obbo pipes and tobacco.

Every tribe has a distinct pattern of pipe; those of the Bari have wide trumpet-shaped mouths; the Latooka are long and narrow; and the Obbo smaller and the neatest. All their pottery is badly burned, and excessively fragile if wet. The water jars are well formed, although the potter's wheel is quite unknown, and the circular form is obtained entirely by the hand. Throughout the tribes of the White Nile, the articles of pottery are limited to the tobacco-pipe and the water-jar: all other utensils are formed either of wood, or of gourd shells.

By observation, 1 determined the latitude of my camp at Obbo to be 4 degrees 02' N., 32 degrees 31' long. E., and the general elevation of the country 3,674 feet above the sea, the temperature about 76 degrees F. The altitude of Latooka was 2,236 feet above the sea level: thus we were, at Obbo, upon an elevated plateau, 1,438 feet above the general level of the country on the east of the mountain range. The climate would be healthy were the country sufficiently populated to war successfully against nature; but the rainfall continuing during ten months of the year, from February to the end of November, and the soil being extremely fertile, the increase of vegetation is too rapid, and the scanty population are hemmed in and overpowered by superabundant herbage. This mass of foliage, and grasses of ten feet in height interwoven with creeping plants and wild grape-vines, is perfectly impenetrable to man, and forms a vast jungle, inhabited by elephants, rhinoceros, and buffaloes, whose ponderous strength alone can overcome it. There are few antelopes, as those animals dislike the grass jungles, in which they have no protection against the lion or the leopard, as such beasts of prey can approach them unseen. In the month of January the grass is sufficiently dry to burn, but even at that period there is a quantity of fresh green grass growing between the withered stems; thus the firing of the prairies does not absolutely clear the country, but merely consumes the dry matter, and leaves a ruin of charred herbage, rendered so tough by the burning, that it is quite impossible to ride without cutting the skin from the horse's shins and shoulders. Altogether, it is a most uninteresting country, as there is no possibility of traversing it except by the narrow footpaths made by the natives.