these reports were false, but, rather than be out
of the way when the time came for marching, I agreed to wait patiently,
write the history of the Wahuma, and make collections, till Mahamed was
ready, trusting that I might find some one at Gondokoro who would finish
what I had left undone; or else, after arriving there, I might go up the
Nile in boats and see for myself. The same evening I was attracted by
the sound of drums to a neighbouring village, where, by the moonlight,
I found the natives were dancing. A more indecent or savage spectacle
I never witnessed. The whole place was alive with naked humanity in a
state of constant motion. Drawing near, I found that a number of drums
were beaten by men in the centre. Next to them was a deep ring of women,
half of whom carried their babies; and outside these again was a still
deeper circle of men, some blowing horns, but most holding their spears
erect. To the sound of the music both these rings of the opposite sexes
kept jumping and sidling round and round the drummers, making the most
grotesque and obscene motions to one another.

9th to 14th.--Nothing of material consequence happened until the 14th,
when eighty of Rionga's men brought in two slaves and thirty tusks of
ivory, as a present to Mahamed. Of course, I knew this was a bribe to
induce Mahamed to fight with Rionga against Kamrasi; but, counting
that no affair of mine, I tried to induce these men to give me some
geographical information of the countries they had just left. Not one of
them would come near me, for they knew I was friends with Kamrasi; and
Mahamed's men, when they saw mine attempting to converse with them,
abused them for "prying into other men's concerns." "These men,"
they said, "are our friends, and not yours; if we choose to give them
presents of cloth and beads, and they give us a return in ivory, what
is that to you?" Mysterious Mahamed next came to me, and begged for a
blanket, as he said he was going off for a few days to a depot where he
had some ivory; and he also wanted to borrow a musket, as one of his had
been burnt.

My suspicions and even apprehensions, were now greatly excited. I began
to think he had prevailed on me to stop here, that I might hold the
place whilst he went to fight Kamrasi with Rionga's men; so I begged
him to listen to my advice, and not attempt to cross the Nile, "else,"
I said, "all his guns would be taken from him, and his passage back cut
off." At once he saw