452 ACKOSS AFEICA. [Chap. 



often during exceptionally dry seasons afford the only supply 

 of water the inhabitants can obtain, both for themselves and 

 the large herds of cattle they possess. Sometimes even this 

 last resource fails them, and then desolation and death reign 

 around. 



From this chain of ponds a jungle march across broken coun- 

 try leads to the district of Kanyenye, a flat plain lying between 

 two parallel ranges of hills running north and south. A few 

 of the welcome ziwas are to be found in Kanyenyd, but gener- 

 ally the country is parched and arid. 



Nitrous particles glisten in the water-courses and in the beds 

 of dried-up pools, and these the natives collect and make into 

 cones like sugar-loaves, and export to their neighbors. 



Ascending to the summit of the range of hills on the west of 

 Kanyenye, another level plateau with flne forest and grass land 

 meets the eye ; and through a chain of rocky hills, formed of 

 the most fantastic masses and bowlders of granite of every shape, 

 the road leads on to Usekhe. 



A species of hyrax, or rock-coney, abounds in tlie crevices and 

 holes of these rocks. 



These bowlders remind one of logans, churches, and the 

 Druidic monuments of Stonehenge and elsewhere; but their 

 enormous size precludes the possibility of their having been 

 erected by human hands. 



A narrow strip of jungle divid.es Useklie from Ivhoko. This 

 district, though inhabited by Wagogo, may be considered, as 

 indeed might Us6khe, as belonging to a geographical division 

 separate from that containing the Marenga Mkali and eastern 

 Ilgogo, which ends at Kanyenye. Khoko is a fertile undulating 

 plain, with many trees, and a few of those bowlders which form 

 such a conspicuous feature in Usekhe. 



Khoko is also remarkable for a species of sycamore, or fig, 

 closely allied to the banyan-tree, which grows to an enormous 

 size, spreading out its branches over a large area. Three of 

 these trees near the village of the chief sheltered the camping- 

 ground, and under one side of a single tree our caravan of over 

 three hundred found ample room and shade. 



When Burton went from Khoko to the next sultanate of 

 Mdaburu, there was a long tract of jungle to be passed. This 



