XI.] A GOOD KIDDANCE. 145 



I learned that Murphy was well away on his return journey, January, 

 having been heard of past Jiwe la Singa. ^^'^^• 



During the day I had an opportunity of watching a man en- 

 gaged in the peculiar process of making a sack for carrying 

 corn. Taking a pole about fourteen feet long, the outer thick 

 bark, which had been previously loosened by soaking in water 

 for some days, was removed by tapping with a small mallet. 

 He next put a strong seizing round the pole at about three feet 

 from one end, and began at the other to turn the inner tough 

 bark inside out, using for this purpose an instrument made of a 

 bent branch cut to an edge at one end, and forming a kind of adze. 



The man then cut the pole short off above the lashing, and 

 turning the bark back again, increased its size by beating it out 

 with a hammer very like that used in making native cloth, 

 which also rendered it soft and more pliant. He afterward put 

 corn into this bark sack, ramming it well in, and, when it was 

 perfectly full, tied up the open end and wound wide strips of 

 bark around the pa6kage. It now resembled a hard bolster 

 about six or seven feet long — the lateral expansion having 

 shortened the bag — with a short pole projecting at one end. 

 This serves to keep the contents from becoming wet when the 

 baggage is stacked against a tree. Larger packages of this 

 kind are used as granaries, being carefully thatched, and then 

 planted by the projecting pole in an open place in the village. 



On the 2d of January, 1874, we broke up from Shikuriih 

 (which, by-the-way, is the village called Kwikuruh by Stanley), 

 after being detained by some men going out for the carcass of 

 a buffalo they had shot. 



I here ascertained that a donkey which was supposed to have 

 strayed at Unyanyembe had actually4)een' sold by Umbari and 

 one of Livingstone's men, named Manua Sera, whom I had sent 

 for it. Upon this discovery, I turned Umbari out of the cara- 

 van, as, in addition to being a rogue, he was a grumbling, trou- 

 blesome fellow, who was constantly stirring up a spirit of dis- 

 satisfaction among the men. 



Asmani seemed doubtful about the road for the next day's 

 journey, so I steered a course by compass, and, after five hours 

 through trackless jungle full of game, camped by some pools in 

 an open space. 



