THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 251 



Several hundred savages are labouring at the public 

 works, some free, and a great many strung together by 

 chains passing from one iron collar to another. I am 

 bound to say the chain gang seemed quite cheerful. 

 Everything was being done by hand, and with incred- 

 ible labour. Long files of men departed for the distant 

 rock lull and reappeared, each carrj^ing on his head a 

 single stone. This he dropped to its place, and re- 

 turned for another. Other files of men carried each a 

 little basket of earth or sand. Planks were being sawn 

 from the sohd log by hand, one man atop, one below, 

 dragging a rusty and dull old saw back and forth. Four 

 men held a pile upright, two more supported a short 

 ladder against it : a seventh, perched precariously on the 

 ladder, beat the end of the huge pile with an ordinary 

 sledge hammer. It looked to be impossible that this 

 should bring results— nor did it seem to as long as I 

 watched — but it must work, for I saw the pile in place 

 two days later! Four men were required to drag one 

 stone a mile. They laid it on a piece of wood, and 

 either hauled on it or laboriously rolled it back on its 

 rude carriage when it fell off. 



Our first job, after making camp, was to prospect for 

 a dhow,* in which to sail north to Shirati — the land 

 journey was impossible on accoimt of sleeping sickness. 

 There were none in port, and no prospects of any for 



* These craft are sailed by negroes, but owned by the Indian traders, who 

 ply a busy trade in peanuts and rice as against the usual trade goods. 



