THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



*'The object of this desperate journey is to flash a torch of light 

 across the western half of the Dark Continent. For from 

 Nyangwe east, along the fourth parallel of south latitude, are 

 some 830 geographical miles, discovered, explored, and surveyed, 

 but westward to the Atlantic Ocean, along the same latitude, are 

 956 miles over 900 geographical miles of which are absolutely 

 unknown. Instead, however, of striking directly west, we are 

 dbout to travel north on the eastern side of the river, to prevent 

 '.t bending easterly to Muta Nzige, or Nilewards, unkown to us, 

 and to ascertain, if the river really runs westward, what affluents 

 flow to it from the east ; and to deduce from their size and 

 volume ome idea of the extent of country which they drain, and 

 the locality of their sources." 



After five days' marching through dense, almost impenetrable 

 forests, where they were compelled to hew their way with axes 

 step by step, they came to the country of Uregga, and halted to 

 rest. The inhabitants of this country live as secluded in their dark 

 forests as the chimpanzees ; but they provide themselves with 

 comforts unknown to other African tribes. Their houses, in the 

 villages, are all connected together in one block, from 50 to 300 

 yards in length -, and are covered with a kind of pitch. They 

 furnish their homes with many luxuries known to civilization, 

 such as cane settees, beautifully covered stools, sociable benches, 

 exquisitely carved spoons, etc. The women of Uregga wear 

 only aprons 4 inches square, of bark or grass cloth, fastened by 

 cords of palm fibre. The men wear skins of civet, or monkey, 

 in front and rear, the tails downward. It may have been from 

 a hasty glance of a rapidly disappearing form of one of these 

 people in the wild woods that native travelers in the lake regions 

 felt persuaded that they had seen " men with tails." 



At Wane-Kirumbu the Waregga were engaged chiefly in *,- 

 working, in which they seem to be very expert, making hammers, 

 axes, hatchets, spears, knives, swords, wire, iron-balls with 

 spikes, leglets, armlets, and iron beads. At every village there 

 was q. furnace in full blast, charcoal being the fuel used. 



