v.] WIFE BEATING. 67 



beauty in the world, having a towering shaft, sometimes fifteen June, 

 feet in diameter and a hundred and forty feet high, with bark i^"^^- 

 of a tender yellowish green, crowned by a spreading head of 

 dark foliage. Unfortunately, these magnificent trees are often 

 sacrificed to serve no more important purpoae than the making 

 of a single door, the wood being soft and easily fashioned ; and 

 since it rots rapidly unless well seasoned, the work of destruc- 

 tion is constantly proceeding. 



As the last men left camp for our next marcli, a leopard, 

 having a monkey in its clutches, fell from an overhanging tree 

 within fifteen yards of where our tents had been pitched. 



For two hours we followed the left bank of the Mukondok- 

 wa, and then crossed the river below a sharp bend in its course, 

 whence a level path through plantations of enormous matama, 

 with stalks over twenty feet high, brought us to camp close to 

 the village of Muinyi Useghara. 



The stream at the point where we forded it was fifty yards 

 wide and mid-thigh deep, running two knots an hour, the ford 

 being marked by the finest mparamusi I ever saw. It had two 

 stems springing from the same root, and running at least one 

 hundred and seventy feet in height before spreading into a 

 magnificent head. 



Near this was the former village of Ivadetamare. It had 

 been much damaged by the late floods and hurricane, and was 

 now inhabited by some of his slaves, under the orders of a 

 head-man in charge of the provision-grounds. 



Ivadetamare, profiting by experience, had built a new village 

 for himself on the summit of a small knoll. 



Soon after our arrival at Muinyi Useghara's, we witnessed a 

 curious custom, said to be universal in Oriental Africa. A 

 woman rushed into camp and tied a knot in Issa's turban, there- 

 by placing herself under his protection, in order to be revenged 

 upon her husband, who had beaten her for not cooking some 

 fish properly. The husband came and claimed her ; but before 

 she was restored to him he was compelled to pay a ransom of a 

 bullock and three goats, and to promise, in the presence of his 

 chief, that he would never again ill-treat her. 



A slave can also obtain a change of masters by breaking a 

 bow or spear belonging to the man whom he selects as his new 



