XVII.] • M£k£TO. 22Y 



Mek^to lies in a broad, deep valley, drained by the Kaca, an June, 

 affluent of the Lukiiga, and, viewed from the hill which forms ^^'^•*- 

 its eastern side, is almost perfect in its rural beauty. Many 

 fields of green matama and cassava, contrasting with the already 

 sun-dried yellow grass ; tiny hamlets of thatched huts cluster- 

 ing at the foot of groves of fine trees, with wreaths of pale-blue 

 smoke curling up from the fires ; and in the foreground a line 

 of heavy vegetation along the Kaga, which here and there re- 

 fiected a ray of the sun as from a surface of burnished silver — 

 combined in making a most beautiful scene. 



WUtSTLE, PILLOW. AND UATOUET. 



Here we remained three days, to obtain supplies and carriers 

 for the journey to Kwamrora Kasea, five marches off, as a num- 

 ber of the men pleaded illness, to avoid carrying their loads. 

 During the stay the chief sent civil messages, with excuses for 

 not coming to see me on account of the distance. I also re- 

 ceived from him a fat goat, for which I, of course, sent a pres- 

 ent in return, and paid his messengers. He did me further 

 good service in providing carriers. 



A native slave-dealer brought into camp a little boy of ten 

 or eleven with his neck in a slave-fork, and wanted to sell him. 

 The poor child had evidently been brutally nsed, and was cry- 

 ing so bitterly, that my first impulse was to set him free and 

 give his master a sound thrashing. Yet, knowing that directly 

 my back was turned any punishment would be repaid to the 

 child with interest, I had to content myself with ordering oft' 

 the brutal dealer. 



People thronged the camp, bringing ground-nuts, corn, sweet- 



16 



