From the Cape to Cairo; the first traverse of Africa from south to north . following day we paddled for hours,seeing nothing but tall reeds, hippo, and sand-spits, and eventually reachedthe left bank again at a .spot called Semsem, owing to the immense planta-tions of that grain which existed here in the time of the Dervishes. Herethere is a bank nearly 6 ft. high, with a large tree tenanted by himdredsof marabouts; to the south-west and north are swamps, and to the east, 262 KERO TO ABU-KUKA AND BACK TO BOHR 263 beyond the river, stretches one vast howling melancholy—reach upon reachof weed a
From the Cape to Cairo; the first traverse of Africa from south to north . following day we paddled for hours,seeing nothing but tall reeds, hippo, and sand-spits, and eventually reachedthe left bank again at a .spot called Semsem, owing to the immense planta-tions of that grain which existed here in the time of the Dervishes. Herethere is a bank nearly 6 ft. high, with a large tree tenanted by himdredsof marabouts; to the south-west and north are swamps, and to the east, 262 KERO TO ABU-KUKA AND BACK TO BOHR 263 beyond the river, stretches one vast howling melancholy—reach upon reachof weed and rush, strips of lagoon, and again rush and reed, till on the farhorizon a thin purple haze shows the line of the right bank. The few Baris that we met on the islands informed us that they hadcome thither because they had been worsted in an encounter with theDinkas to the north-west. Their villages were very scattered, the hutsbeing dotted in ones and twos throughout their fields of millet. Theybeat the ground immediately surrounding their huts into a hard CONGO OFFICIAL OX THE 3IARCH. which they keep w^ell swept, and upon which they dry the seeds of thenenuphar preparatory to pounding it into flour. As most of their hutswere covered with strings of drying meat and strips of hippo hide, theywould appear to be expert hippopotamus hunters. All their canoes arevery tiny, and they work them with consummate skill. The amount offish that they spear is wonderful. It is very sad to think how the Barishave been wiped out by the Dervishes. It will be remembered what aformidable people they were in Sir Samuel Bakers time; putting thousandsof warriors into the field, and owning vast herds of cattle. Now with the 264 FROM THE CAPE TO CAIRO exception of those Avho took refuge in the Gondokoro hills, they are to allintents and purposes extinct. A few scattered settlements of miserablefisher-folk alone show the extent of the former Bari kingdom. The wholeroad from Krefis kraal t
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