ooking, laughing negresses, and all
but naked; but this they were now used to, and it excited no emotions
of surprise. Most of them had a square of silver or tin hanging at
the back of the head, suspended from the hair, which was brought down
in narrow plaits, quite round the neck.

The town of Lari stands on an eminence, and may probably contain two
thousand inhabitants. The huts are built of the rush which grows by
the side of the lake, have conical tops, and look very like
well-thatched stacks of corn in England. They have neat enclosures
round them, made with fences of the same reed, and passages leading
to them like labyrinths. In the enclosure are a goat or two, poultry,
and sometimes a cow. The women were almost always spinning cotton,
which grows well, though not abundantly, near the town and the lake.
The interior of the huts is neat, they are completely circular, with
no admission for air or light, except at the door, which has a mat,
hung up by way of safeguard. Major Denham entered one of the best
appearance, although the owner gave him no smiles of encouragement,
and followed close at his heels, with a spear and dagger in his hand.
In one corner stood the bed, a couch of rushes lashed together, and
supported by six poles, fixed strongly in the ground. This was
covered by the skins of the tiger-cat and wild bull. Round the sides
were hung the wooden bowls, used for water and milk; his tall shield
rested against the wall. The hut had a division of mat-work, one half
being allotted to the female part of the family. The owner, however,
continued to look at his unexpected visitor with so much suspicion,
and seemed so little pleased with his visit, notwithstanding all the
endeavours of Major Denham to assure him, he was his friend, that he
hurried from the inhospitable door, and resumed his walk through the
town.

On quitting Lari, they immediately plunged into a thickly-planted
forest of acacias, with high underwood, and at the distance of only a
few hundred yards from the town, they came upon large heaps of
elephants' dung, forming hillocks three or four feet in height, and
marks of their footsteps; the tracks of these animals increased as
they proceeded. Part of the day their road lay along the banks of the
Tchad, and the elephants' footmarks of an immense size, and only a
few hours old, were in abundance. Whole trees were broken down, where
they had fed; and where they had reposed their ponderous bodies,