72 ACEOSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



June, After a while our eccentric friend retired, and soon afterward a 

 ^^'^^' tremendous noise occurred in the camp of the Wanyamwezi. 



On going to ascertain the cause of the excitement, I found 

 the Arab, followed by some slaves from his caravan, driving 

 the Wanyamwezi out of their camp on the plea that heathens 

 had no right to possess any goods, and, therefore, the remnant 

 of stores they had saved from the rapacious clutches of the 

 chief of Rehenneko ought by right to belong to a true believer. 



He was now attempting to carry this doctrine to its logical 

 conclusion ; but I sent the lunatic back to his master, and, 

 seeing cpiiet restored, the Wanyamwezi returned to their oc- 

 cupations, Avhich had been so suddenly and unexpectedly in- 

 terrupted. 



The chief, a dirty, greasy old fellow, with a moist and liquor- 

 ish eye, and a nose which denoted his devotion to pombe, came 

 afterward with the leader of the Arab caravan to thank me for 

 having prevented a serious disturbance. 



In order to recruit after the fatigues of the trying march from 

 Lake Ugombo, and to prepare for crossing the Marenga Mkali, 

 another waterless track of more than thirty miles, we remained 

 here two days. 



And having now experienced the disagreeable consequences 

 of the lack of water, I resolved to take a supply by filling four 

 india -rubber air pillows, each holding three gallons. It re- 

 quired some little ingenuity to fill them ; but by taking out the 

 screw -plugs of the nozzles by which they were inflated, and 

 using the tube of a pocket-filter as a siphon, the difficulty was 

 overcome. 



At Mpwapwa the tewihe was first met with, and continued 

 thence throughout UffOffo the sole habitation of the natives. 



The tembe is formed simply of two walls running parallel, 

 subdivided by partitions and having a roof nearly flat, sloping 

 only slightly to the front. It is usually built to form a square, 

 inside which the cattle are penned at night. It is about the 

 most comfortless form of habitation that the brain of man ever 

 devised ; and as the huts are shared by the fowls and goats, 

 they are filthy in the extreme, and swarm with insect life. 



The people are armed with bows and arrows, and knob-sticks 

 for throwing or using as a club, and also have long, narrow, 



