approaching lands where no dialect that we j
knew would be available.
We managed to learn, however, that the name
of the island was Cheandoah, or Kewandoah, of
the Baswa tribe; that the howling savages on
the left bank were the renowned Bakumu—
cannibals, and most warlike; that the Bakumu
used bows and arrows, and were the tribe that
had driven the Baswa long ago to seek refuge
on these islands. When we asked her the name
of the river she said Lumami was the name of
the left branch, and the Lowwa of the right
branch. She gave the word Kukeya as indicating
the left bank, and Ngyeyeh for the right
bank. Waki-biano, she said, was the name of
the large island which we had passed when w$
saw the villages of the Baswa below the first
cataract. The words Ubi, or Eybiteri, we understood
her to employ for the Falls as being
utterly impassable.
During the morning of the 8th we explored the
island of Cheandoah, which was much longer
than we at first supposed. It was extremely
populous, and contained five villages. We discovered
an abundance of spears here and ironware
of all kinds used by the natives, such as
knives, hammers, hatchets, tweezers, anvils of
iron, or, in other words, inverted hammers,
borers, pole-burners, fish-hooks, darts, iron rods;
all the spears possessed broad points, and were
rjan. 8, l877-l THE ISLAND OF CHEANDOAH.
[Cheandoah. J
ail first of this style I had seen. Almost aU
the knives, large and small, were encase
sheaths of wood covered with *
ornamented with polished won bands. They
[varied in size, from a butchers cleaver
jady’s dirk, and belts of undressed goat-skm, of
1 ted buffalo or antelope hide, were■ attached to
them for suspension from the shoulders. There
T e also seen here iron bells, like our cow and
„oat bells, curiously carved whistles,
idols of wood, uncouth and rudely cut gures
human beings, brightly painted
alternating with black; baskets made of palm
ibm large wooden and dark clay p.pes, won
I 1 w arms and legs, numerous treasures of
ueddaces of the Achatina mmetari*, the black
T O a species of plantain, " ™
1 berries of the Abrus precatonus; copper, iro ,
A rtflfan nellets The and wooden pellets. houses were all of
the sable-roofed pattern which we had first
t r ic e d on the summit of rite hills, on whrch
Riba-Riba, Manyema, is situate; the s te s o
the Baswa were also after the same type.
The vegetation of the island consisted of almost
every^ variety of plant and tree found m this
region, and the banana, plantain, castor-oil,
sugar-cane, cassava, and maize flourished, nor
r i t e the oil-palm be forgotten, for
Sreat iars of its dark-red butter m many houses.
g nrnblem now before me was how to