EXCURSIONS FROM NJEMPS 



turbance of my calculations on Lake Losuguta, I should have 

 had this. I had, however, distributed the last load with the 

 less hesitation, as I felt persuaded that in a district where there 

 was sufficient food to support two such large villages as Njemps 

 Mdogo and Njemps Mkubwa, enough could surely be obtained 

 somehow to ration forty men for a couple of days. If this 

 could not be done, I resolved to leave the loads and sluggards 

 at Njemps, and push on to Kamasia by forced marches. I 

 had never doubted that I could get as much as I wanted there, 

 and the news that the famine extended not only over Njemps, 

 but also over the rich plateaux to the west, was a blow as stagger- 

 ing as it was unexpected. I had always regarded the failure of 

 supplies at Njemps as a possibility, but as one that could only 

 be a nuisance. Now, however, it was obvious that the extension 

 of the famine to Kamasia might easily mean a disaster to my 

 expedition. 



My plan of action was soon settled, but I was still sitting 

 on the log, wondering how I could most easily appease 

 the wrath of the caravan, when I was interrupted by a soft 

 voice giving me the Arab greeting " Subulkairi." It came 

 from an elderly Arab dressed in a spotless white robe or 

 " kanzu," which would have looked eminently respectable in 

 any bazaar in Zanzibar. The usual dialogue of salutations 

 followed, and he made rne a long speech of welcome in an easy 

 flow of Kisuahili. I was too charmed by its musical rhythm to 

 bother about the meaning, and told Ramathan to make an 

 appropriate reply. The Arab led me by the hand into the 

 village and introduced me to his friends, a company of Mombasa 

 merchants ; they were waiting at Njemps for the return of the 

 parties they had sent off in different directions to purchase 

 ivory. They asked me if I were hungry, and I confessed I 

 was ; I believe I looked it. They gave me a bowl of delicious 

 bean-flour " potiss," or gruel, and a cupful of sour cream ; a 

 plague of flies lessened the comfort of the meal, for in spite of 

 the efforts of two of the Arab's slaves to keep them off by 

 flourishing over me zebra and eland tails, a crust of drowned 

 and drowning flies made the food look like a black-cap pudding. 

 At first I dived for flyless handfuls — my spoons had not yet 

 arrived — in the deeper strata of the mass ; but as a few of my 

 tormentors were always picked up between the basin and my 



