mosquitoes looking out for a landing-place in this world of marshes. I took the chief of the Nuehrs' portrait, as he sat in my cabin on the divan; of course he was delighted. He exhibited his wife's arms and back covered with jagged scars, in reply to my question as to the use of the spiked iron bracelet. Charming people are these poor blacks! as they are termed by English sympathisers; he was quite proud of having clawed his wife like a wild beast. In sober earnest, my monkey "Wallady" looks like a civilized being compared to the Nuehr savages. The chiefs forehead was tattooed in horizontal lines that had the appearance of wrinkles. The hair is worn drawn back from the face. Both men and women wear a bag slung from the neck, apparently to contain any presents they may receive, everything being immediately pocketed. Course S.S.E. Jan. 14th.-All day occupied in repairing the yard; the buffalo hide of the animal that killed Sali Achmet being most serviceable in lashing. Sailed in the evening in company with a boat belonging to the Austrian mission. River about 120 yards of clear water; current about two miles per hour. Found quantities of natron on the marshy ground bordering the river. Had a turkey for dinner, a "cadeau" from Koorshid Aga, and, as a great wonder, the kisras (a sort of brown pancake in lieu of bread) were free from sand. I must have swallowed a good-sized millstone since I have been in Africa, in the shape of grit rubbed from the moorhaka, or grinding-stone. The moorhaka, when new, is a large flat stone, weighing about forty pounds; upon this the corn is ground by being rubbed with a cylindrical stone with both hands. After a few months' use half of the original grinding-stone disappears, the grit being mixed with the flour; thus the grinding-stone is actually eaten. No wonder that hearts become stony in this country! Jan. 15th.-We were towing through high reeds this morning, the men invisible, and the rope mowing over the high tops of the grass, when the noise disturbed a hippopotamus from his slumber, and he was immediately perceived close to the boat. He was about half grown, and in an instant about twenty men jumped into the water in search of him, thinking him a mere baby; but as he suddenly appeared, and was about three times as large as they had expected, they were not very eager to close. However, the reis Diabb pluckily led the way and seized him by the hind leg, when the crowd of men rushed in, and we had a grand tussle. Ropes were thrown from the vessel, and nooses were quickly slipped over his head, but he had the best of the struggle and was dragging the people into the open river; I was therefore obliged to end the sport by putting a ball through his head. He was scored all over by the tusks of some other hippopotamus that had been bullying him. The men declared that his father had thus misused him; others were of opinion that it was his mother; and the argument ran high, and became hot.