XIV.] NEGRO MELODISTS. 179 



While at Ujiji, I met with great civility from the traders, March, 

 who frequently sent me cooked food, and Mohammed ibn Salib ^^''■*- 

 gave me a bullock and half a dozen sheep. I naturally made 

 them presents in return, and was the more inclined to do so 

 from having heard that they had befriended Livingstone. 



Syde Mezrui was expecting a caravan from Unyanyembe 

 with stores exchanged for ivory, but was good enough to say 

 that, whether it had arrived or not when I returned, he would 

 be ready to show me the way to Nyangwe. 



I should mention that I was visited here by three mounte- 

 banks or minstrels, wlio were walking about the country much 

 after the fashion of Italian organ-grinders in England, seeking 

 whom they might render miserable with their noise. They 

 were furnished with enormous rattles made of gourds filled 

 with pebbles, and with these they accented their songs and 

 dances. The noise was something deafening when all three 

 rattled away at once; for these instruments were far more 

 powerful and effective than the " Bones " of Chi-isty Minstrels. 

 They treated me to break-downs and walk-rounds which might 

 well be the original of our music-hall style; while the songs 

 (solos with chorus) had the " yah-yah " accompaniment precise- 

 ly as given by the stage nigger. 



At last, on the 13th of March, I managed to get away with 

 Bombay and thirty-seven men, leaving Bilal in charge of the 

 remainder and some stores. But, having served out beads to 

 enable the crews to buy five days' rations in advance, all hands 

 took the opportunity of getting drunk early in the morning, 

 and it was afternoon before I could collect them, or they could 

 collect their senses. ^ 



I selected the Betsij for my flag-ship, and over a sort of poop 

 of which she boasted fitted np a wagon-roof awning, hoiking it 

 would serve for me to live under altogether ; but it proved any 

 thing but weather-proof, and it was fortunate I had taken my 

 tent on board. 



A light fair wind enabled us to make sail, and that evening 

 we ran down past the settlement of Jumah Merikani — of whom 

 I shall have to speak hereafter — in Ukaranga, and camped at 

 Point Mfbmdo. 



After i^roceeding a short distance the next day, passing love- 



