242 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



robbed of it. The country people brought me 

 plenty to sell until Kajeti's people appeared on 

 the scene, when they departed ; and if by chance 

 one remained near the camps, he was a poor man 

 according to his own account. 



Kajeti himself, when he at length summoned up 

 courage to visit me, proved an arrant coward. He 

 would not enter my tent, although it was raining. 

 I offered him some sugar and salt, but he would 

 not taste it. He and his large following of dissi- 

 pated boys and youths were all half drunk with 

 pembe, and when he had at last discovered that I 

 did not intend to hurt him, he began to beg and 

 demand guns in such an insolent way that I had 

 to tell him to go and leave me alone. 



Oppressions and robbery of the poorer people, as 

 well as licentious and drinking habits in the king's 

 entourage, are an inevitable consequence of a war- 

 like and raiding state. They have in Karagwe, as 

 usual, produced utter destruction of the community 

 after a very few years. 



The journey from Latoma to Werowangi was 

 rather tiresome. After Kisozzi, we had to leave 

 the Kagera on account of the enormous lake or 

 lagoon of Karaingy. This is a vast sheet of 

 water which must have once extended fully 20 

 miles further inland amongst the hills, and is now 

 apparently drying up. It has numerous floating 

 islands and patches of papyrus in it, and is prob- 

 ably very shallow. 



