As a general rule, after first tasting a
native dish, you feel not only that your mouth,
but that all your internals, are on fire; and
your curiosity is quenched by an agony of
pain. Perseverance and Kankee will,
however, enable you to enjoy them.

The native drinks are few. Palm-wine is
the sap of the palm-tree, which, if taken before
sun-rise, is cool and delicious; but, after sun-
rise, it ferments, and becomes highly
intoxicating.

Petoe is a sort of beer made from Indian
corn.

This is a long digression, and I have
wandered far away from Quobna's suggestion
about the patacoos and our exploration of the
Ogbomoshaw, to which, now that Quobna's
position and importance have been explained,
we may return.

We started early one morning in two
canoes, Brown in one, I in the other. The
first half-mile was uninteresting enough; the
banks were lined with mangrove bushes,
coated with innumerable oysters, and as the
tide was going down, for the mouth of the
river was now open, the fat black mud gave
out a horrible stench, and little bubbles of
poisonous gases forced their way through it
and burst when they reached the surface.

After a while, however, we reached a large
bluff crowned with silk cotton-trees of most
gigantic growth: here the river makes a
sharp turn, and, after rounding the bluff,
divides into five channels. We take the one
on our immediate left, and paddle on with as
little noise as possible.

Before we had got far, we saw a heron
standing on the bank; he also saw us, walked
away a few paces, and then flew up a narrow
creek. We followed, the canoemen dragging
the boats along by the overhanging branches
of the trees which clothed the bank, and at
the end of the creek we saw on a large tree
such a collection of herons, sand-cranes, and
other birds, as I had never met with. My
first thought was how to get a shot at them.
So I retired quietly from the mouth of the
creek, and proceeded to wade to the opposite
shore. But the second step took me up to
the waist in mud, and I was dragged out
unceremoniously and hastily by Quobna and
the canoemen.

Quobna said, angrily, " No good for massa
go in water lika dat!"

"So it appears," I answered, " if I stick in
the mud."

"Don't mean him,—good for you stop in
canoe, bad fish live in this water, he eat you
one time."

This last remark settled the matter; and I
had ocular demonstration in about two
minutes that the " bad fish" was an alligator,
and could not doubt that he would have
eaten me "one time."

There was nothing for it, therefore, but to
get the canoe as near as possible for a shot at
them. It was really a lovely sight while it
lasted; fifty or sixty herons and cranes perched
on the one tree, or standing in the water.
But the appearance of the canoe startled
these stately gentlemen, and they flew off in
all directions. One passed over my head; I
fired, and he fell among the trees on the
bank. He was a magnificent fellow, and, I
fancied, much larger than European herons.

Brown shot a blue crane; the hairy
feathers which take the place of the tail are
very beautiful.

We left the creek, and returned again to
the main stream. Instead of mangroves, the
banks were now covered with the palms from
which oil is obtained, silk cotton-trees,
ironwood, and native mahogany. Those that
grew close to the water were covered with
armies of land-crabs, which sidled up among
the branches at a most suprising rate; and a
constant splashing was kept up by the
alligators as they scuttled into the water at the
approach of the canoe.

We saw numbers of kingfishers, but only
two varieties. A little violet-coloured beauty,
about the size of a wren, with a crest
something like a peacock; and a large slate-
coloured fellow, who follows his avocation
with great assiduity, and who, if he catches a
fish every time he dives, must have a stomach
of marvellous capacity.

There were also pretty green doves among
the trees; but not an opening in any direction
through which we could obtain a glimpse
of the country beyond.

We made our way slowly up the river for
about eight hours, and then seeing a couple
of fishing canoes moored to the bank, we
concluded that there must be a kroom
somewhere in the neighbourhood, and thought it
would be as well to try and get some kind of
food.

We followed a track through the bush,
and saw a cluster of cocoa-nut palms about
half a mile off. This assured us that we were
in the right direction; as, on the West Coast,
a kroorn is always built near cocoa-nut
palms, and these trees afford food, drink,
shelter, and clothing to the natives. The
milk of the cocoa-nut is deliciously cool before
the sun rises,—as if it had been iced,—and as
clear as crystal. The nut is soft and semi-
transparent, not hard and white, as when it
reaches England.

We passed some plantations of maize and
cassava, and two or three little patches of
chalots and okroes, and then entered the
village.

The chief's residence was a good sized
square wattle-house, enclosing a court-yard,
and with a gallery running all round it.
In the yard culinary operations were
being conducted by the ladies of the
establishment, which reminded us that we were
hungry, and we applied, through Quobna, for
refreshment.

After a great deal of palaver, they said,
first, that we could not have anything till