THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 417 



at Central Park, whose funny antics elicit such bursts of laughter 

 from young New Yorkers. One of my soldiers requested them 

 to lessen their vociferous noise ; but the evil-minded race ordered 

 him to shut up, as a thing unworthy to speak to the Wago^o ! 

 When I imploringly turned to the Arabs for counsel in this strait, 

 old Sheikh Thani, always worldly-wise, said, "Heed them not; 

 they are dogs who bite besides barking." 



A camp was made, and negotiations with the natives soon 

 began. The quantity and variety of provisions produced in the 

 country was positively astonishing, proving Ugogo to be one of 

 the very richest districts of all Africa. The natives brought and 

 sold milk, both sour and sweet, honey, beans, Indian corn, a 

 variety of peas, peanuts, bean nuts, pumpkins, water melons, 

 musk melons, cucumbers, and many other kinds of vegetables. 

 The Great Sultan of Mvumi, or ruler of Ugogo, was a most 

 extortionate old relic of Arabic cupidity and autocracy, and 

 compelled Stanley to pay a large tribute of cloth and beads for 

 the privilege of crossing his country. 



AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE NATIVES. 



As the expedition continued its march each village was emptied 

 of its inhabitants, who ran along staring at the Musungu (white 

 man) and frequently committing insolent acts, until Stanley's 

 patience with them became quite exhausted. He writes : "Hith- 

 erto those we had met had contented themselves with staring and 

 shouting ; but these outstepped all bounds, and my growing 

 anger at their excessive insolence vented itself in gripping the 

 rowdiest of them by the neck, and before he could recover from 

 his astonishment administering a sound thrashing with my dog- 

 whip, which he little relished. This proceeding educed from 

 the tribe of starers all their native power of vituperation and 

 abuse, in expressing which they were peculiar. Approaching in 

 manner to angry tom-cate, they jerked their words with some- 

 thing of a splitting hiss and a half bark. The ejaculation, as 

 near as I can spell it phonetically, was 'hahcht,' uttered in a 

 shrill crescendo tone. They paced backward and f<>nvard 



asking themselves, Are the Wagogo to be beaten, Ufce t>J<ivto \>y 



( 



