_7th January._—In the morning we landed on the left shore, where the great sheikh of the Bunduriàl nation presented himself as an old friend, being already known by the preceding expedition. He was of colossal figure, above six feet high, had a handsome aquiline nose, and a truly expressive physiognomy: about thirty years of age; naked, according to the custom of his ancestors. He was only distinguished from the others by wearing unusually large ivory rings on the upper part of the arm. His name is Biur. A red shirt and coral beads having been presented to him, he went away to procure meat, and to send messengers up the river to prepare a favourable reception for us. Behind this village of Aujan a large lake extends from N.N.W. to S.W., and a serpentine canal, some thirty feet in width, before the village, pours into it. Several people were moving on this long lake to catch fish: their implements were fish-baskets, of a whole, or half form, or mere wicker-baskets, which they dipped into the lake and quickly drew up again. To judge from the ground inclining gently, as if in a flat dish, and from those trees, forming the arch from N.N.W. to S.W., being the forerunners of a thicker Haba, a very large lake must be filled here at high water. The greatest part of the water is afterwards let off, for the sake of fishing, through the before-named canal. An immeasurable quantity of water, generally, is collected in the low lands, according to all the appearances which I myself have found of such ponds in my short excursions into the neighbourhood. These always exercise a lasting effect on the lower height of the water of the White Stream, by their nearly simultaneous draining off, whilst they contribute mostly during the inundation to the sudden swelling of the White Stream by their connection with it. The tokuls of this village, which is called Auan or Auwan, are not badly built, but have low walls; the point of the roof also is not high. The lower wall, being of reeds, and plastered with Nile slime, is only three and a half or four feet high. The door is square here instead of the usual oval form; it is constructed of reeds, and before it are two stakes fixed in the ground, supporting a cross stake. Almost all the tokuls have a little porch before this door, which is covered by the roof being extended over it. The outer door is therefore lower than the inner one, and the inmates are compelled to crawl into the house. Generally, on the White Nile, it is necessary to stoop very much to enter the tokuls. The roof is indented according to the length of the straw bound up in hoops, and to the height of the roof itself; it has from five to eight separations. The point of the roof is covered, as I before remarked, by a gourd-shell, opening at the top and bottom, and forms a broad ring, in which the slender beams join.