184 ACROSS AFRICA. -[Chap. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Profitable Slave -buying. — Street Acrobats. — War-paint. — A Bad Night. — Cowardly 

 Boat's Crews. — Kabogo. — A Public Entertainment. — Stealing Men's Brains. — 

 Coal. — A Honey Demon. — A Plague of Frogs. — Enlargement of the Lake. — Massi 

 Kambi. — An Optical Illusion. — Many Devils. — One of my Men shoots Himself. — 

 Doctors differ. — Curious Hair-oil. — The Chief of Makukira. — His Dress. — Wives. 

 — Dolls. — Infantine Taste for Drink. — Cotton Manufacture. — Spread of the Slave- 

 trade. — The Watuta. — Customs and Dress. — Twins. 



March, Ras Kungwe is situatecl near tlie narrowest part of tlie lake, 



1874. -where it is not more tlian fifteen miles across; and, after round- 

 ing that point, we passed under enormous hills clothed witli 

 trees, and having crystal torrents and water-falls flashing down 

 their sides. 



At the bottom of these hills, especially near the mouth of the 

 torrents, were many small beaches, some of fine sand, and others 

 of coarse, angular shingle of granite, quartz, and iron ore. 



Patches of corn among the jungle denoted the haunts of 

 wretched fugitives from the slave - hunters. These poor creat- 

 ures were doomed to a miserable existence, owing to the few 

 strong villages hunting down their weaker neighbors, to ex- 

 change them with traders from Ujiji for food which they are 

 too lazy to produce themselves. 



For the night we remained in the river Luuluga, near the 

 village Kinyari, where the Wajiji, who coasted down with us, 

 sold their corn, oil, and goats for slaves — the only product of 

 the place — and then turned homeward. 



The pri(;e of a slave was from four to six doti, or two goats ; 

 and as a goat could be bought for a shukkah at Ujiji, where 

 slaves "^vere worth twenty doti, the profits of the Wajiji must 

 have been enormous. 



I took occasion to visit the village, and found it of moderate 

 size, composed of conical huts, surrounded by a heavy palisade 

 and a ditch, a single slippery plank across wdiich led to the 



