454 ACROSS AFRICA. [Chap. 



thej took was so tortuous, that it was impossible to trace wheth- 

 er thej belonged to the area of drainage supplying the Nile, 

 the Tanganyika, or the Ewaha. 



Where the land is cultivated around settlements, as at Jiwe 

 la Singa, it everywhere presents a scene of wondrous fertility, 

 and the whole of this level might hereafter be made a wheat- 

 producing country. 



From Jiwe la Singa onward the drainage decidedly belonged 

 to the Nile area. 



Just beyond that settlement is a small range of rocky hills, 

 where the road leads over an arete about fifty yards in length, 

 which blocks the pass between two of the hills. Few villages 

 are to be seen in the country beyond, w^hich is mostly covered 

 with jungle. Water is scarce, though, no doubt, it lay in the 

 hollows of the granite rock which in places showed out in great 

 sheets, and probably is to be found everywhere within thirty 

 feet of the surface. 



The most cultivated portion of this district is near the village 

 of the chief of Urguru, four long marches from Unyanyembe ; 

 and there, for the first time since leaving the coast mountains, 

 rice cultivation was seen in the damp hollows. The country 

 between Urguru and Unyanyembe is tolerably level, and almost 

 entirely jungle. At Marvva, half-way on the road, numerous 

 bowlders and granite hills stand out from the plain, and many 

 fan-palms grow near them. 



At the outskirts of Unyanyembe is a small dry water-course, 

 an affluent of the Tura nullah, which in the rainy season spreads 

 out a short way to the north-north-west into a lagoon or swamp, 

 called the Nya Kuv, which drains ultimately into the Victoria 

 ISTyanza. This is according to Ai-ab information, and, I think, 

 wortliy of credence. 



It may be worth remarking the presence of the root nya in 

 Nya-nza, Nya-ssa, Ma-nya-ra, and Nya Kuv. In Kisuahili, hu- 

 nya means "to rain," and the "^;?^" being only the prefix of 

 the infinitive mood, nya is the enclitic form of the verb. 



This " dry stream " is the boundary of Unyanyembe proper, 

 which is mostly cleared of jungle, and has long been pre-eminent 

 for the large number of its population and the extent of their 

 husbandry. 



