WAHIMA, WAKONDJA, AND SUAH1LIS. 109 



At the Wimi, an old man came to me to say 

 that Virungo had taken his two boys, one a son 

 and the other his slave, and would not give them 

 np. I told him to wait four days ; and he waited, 

 nearly dying of starvation in the interval. Then I 

 sent an askari over to Virungo and told him to give 

 up the boys. Greatly to my disgust the man and 

 two boys came back and begged me to take them 

 to the Salt lake, where they could join themselves 

 to some other chief. Virungo came to see me on 

 my way there, and tried every means of inducing 

 me to give them up or send them to Kasagama. 

 The man turned pale at the bare idea of this and 

 fell down and seized my knee, saying they would 

 kill him on the road. As I had no doubt whatever 

 that this was true, and as Makwenda was obliged 

 to admit that the man if he wished to join another 

 chief had legally the right to take both his sons 

 and slaves with him, I simply took them to Katwe, 

 where they joined on to Kasuiri. 



It is not too much to say that the chief has 

 absolute power in his own district. He can take 

 anybody's son or wife, or as much of his property 

 as he likes and, unless the man is able to over- 

 bribe Kasagama, there is no appeal. Unless he is 

 also a man of great pluck and determination, he 

 would never reach the supreme chief at all. In 

 fact, the sole resource for a man in bad odour with 

 his chief, is to rly to some one else and leave every- 

 thing behind him. If burdened with property and 



