4 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



Aveeks. The kirangozi now returned -with many excuses 

 to escape the undertaking. He declared that all the 

 roads were rendered impassable by wars ; and that it 

 was impossible for him to undertake the responsibility 

 of escorting me in so dangerous a country. After a 

 good deal of bothering and persuading he at length 

 acceded, and brought fifteen pagazis or porters from 

 his own and some neighbouring villages. To each of 

 these I gave five cloths as hire, and all appeared 

 ready : but not so. Bombay's Seedi nature came 

 over him, and he would not move a yard unless I 

 gave him a month's wages in cloth upon the spot I 

 thought his demand an imposition, for he had just 

 been given a cloth. His wages were originally fixed 

 at five dollars a-month, to accumulate at Zanzibar 

 until our return there ; but he was to receive daily 

 rations the same as all the other men, with an occa- 

 sional loin-cloth covering whenever his shukka might 

 wear out. All these strikes with the Belooches and 

 slaves were in consequence of their having bought 

 some slaves, whose whims and tastes they could not 

 satisfy without our aid ; and they knew these men 

 would very soon desert them unless they received occa- 

 sional alluring presents to make them contented. But 

 finessing is a kind of itch with all Orientals, as gambling 

 is with those who are addicted to it, and they would 

 tell any lie rather than gain their object easily by the 

 simple truth, on the old principle that " stolen things 

 are sweetest." Had Bombay only opened his heart, 



