134 JOUKNEY WITHOUT MAPS

the headman giggled salaciously somewhere in the
dark nearby, until at last he slipped away into the
moonless night carrying his chair.

But there was one thing I had to know before I
went to bed—where to go next. The doctor at the
mission had spoken of an easy day's march to a place
he called Dagomai, a long march the day after to
Nicoboozu, and then Zigita. That was as far as he
had been on the way to Ganta, but south of Zigita, at
Zorzor, there was a Lutheran mission where someone
might know something of the way beyond. The maps
of the Dutch prospectors didn't cover the ground
so far east.

The trouble was, no one had heard of Dagomai.
Peter Bonoh hadn't heard of it, nor had his father or
the old headman. The only town they could suggest
between Kpangblamai and Zigita was Pandemai. But
that wasn't far enough for a day's march, and besides
I didn't expect too friendly a reception from the chief
there, who had been expecting me that night.
Dagomai, Dagomai, I kept on repeating in the hope
that somebody would have heard of the place.
Presently "Duogobmai," the chief said doubtfully. It
sounded very nearly right, it was on the way to
Nicoboozu, and I decided that it must be the place
the doctor had meant. "Too far," Alfred said, join-
ing in, "too far"; the carriers clustered round and he
whispered to them how far it was; they hadn't begun
to work together yet, they were full of jealousy and
suspicion:. he had the right material to his hand. But
I didn't believe him; even the doctor's wife had done
the march to Dagomai, and now I quite firmly
.believed that Duogobmai and Dagomai were the same