652 PICTURESQUE SCENEEY. 



as any tribe could boast of. The belles of the district, as is the 

 wont and undisputed right of their sex, were conspicuous by a 

 fondness for delight in brass wire wound in strands about the 

 wrists and ankles, and the various styles their insipid heads ex- 

 hibited and lengthy necklaces dangling about their black and 

 shining bodies, while their poor lords were obliged to be con- 

 tented with dingy torn clouts and split ears. 



Crossing the Ungerengeri, a beautiful river with a broad 

 fertile valley, on the western border of Ukwere, and passing 

 through the narrow belt of country which is all that is left to 

 the warlike remnants of the once powerful Wakami tribe, the 

 young traveller entered the territory of the "Wadoe, a people full 

 of traditions, who have always defended themselves bravely 

 against the encroachments of neighbors and the invasions of 

 marauders. They are described as nobler looking than the 

 Wakwere or Wakami, with a lighter shade and more intelligent 

 cast of features. The region they inhabit might well have been 

 guarded by them with jealous courage. Speaking of it, Mr. 

 Stanley says : " It is in appearance amongst the most picturesque 

 countries between the coast and Unyanyembe. Great cones 

 shoot upward above the everlasting forests, tipped by the light 

 fleecy clouds, through which the warm glowing sun darts its 

 rays, bathing the whole in a quickening radiance which brings 

 out those globes of foliage that rise in tier after tier along the 

 hill-sides in rich and varied hues which would mock the most 

 ambitious painter's skill." From the winding paths along the 

 crests of ridges the traveller may look down over forest-clad 

 slopes into the deep valleys, and across to other slopes as gayly 

 clad, and other ridges where deep concentric folds tempt him 

 to curious wanderings by their beauty and mystery and gran- 

 deur. But those lovely glades and queenly hills told saddest 

 stories of cruel deeds and wrongs irreparable. It is the old 

 story: envious evil eagerly invades with its polluting presence 

 those sacred spots where all is loveliest ; infernal malice mars 

 with strange delight what is beautiful and pure. On man first, 

 creation's inner court, the author of evil fixed his revengeful 

 eye, and rested not until the cruel blight had fallen on all the 

 beauty and purity. And human depravity, like the malice of 

 Satan, has worn its darkest scowl amid the loveliest scenes, and 



