APPEARANCE OF UNYAMWEZI. 661 



on the general undulation. There are no mountains. "The 

 superjacent stratum is clay, overlying the sandstone, based upon 

 various granites, which in some places crop out, picturesquely 

 disposed in blocks and boulders and huge domes and lumpy 

 masses; ironstone is met with at a depth varying from five to 

 twelve feet, and bits of coarse ore have been found in Unvan- 

 yembe by digging not more than four feet in a chance spot. 

 During the rains the grass conceals the soil, but in the dry sea- 

 sons the land is gray, lighted up by golden stubbles, and dotted 

 with wind-distorted trees, shallow swamps of emerald grass, and 

 wide streets of dark mud. Dwarfed stumps and charred ' black 

 jacks ' deform the fields, which are sometimes ditched or hedged 

 in, whilst a thin forest of parachute-shaped thorns diversifies the 

 waves of rolling land and earth hills, spotted with sunburnt 

 stone. The reclaimed tracts and clearings are divided from one 

 another by strips of primeval jungle, varying from two to 

 twelve miles in length, and, as in other parts of Africa, the 

 country is dotted with ' fairy mounts ' — dwarf mounds — the 

 ancient sites of trees now crumbled to dust, and the debris of 

 insect architecture. Villages, the glory of all African tribes, 

 are seen at short intervals rising only a little above their im- 

 pervious walls of lustrous green milk-bush, with its coral-shaped 

 arms, variegating the well-hoed plains ; whilst in the pasture 

 lands herds of many-colored cattle, plump, round-barrelled and 

 high-humped, like Indian breeds, and mingled flocks of goats 

 and sheep, dispersed over the landscape, suggest ideas of bar- 

 barous comfort and plenty." 



The proprietors of this soil are the typical race in this por- 

 tion of central Africa; and their comparative industry and 

 commercial activity have secured them a conspicuous superiority 

 among the tribes. 



They are generally splendid specimens of the genus homo, so 

 far as physical proportions make it up ; tall and manly-looking, 

 and endowed with remarkable strength and powers of en- 

 durance. But they are genuine sons of Ham notwithstanding ; 

 the deep brown hue and negroid features are unquestionable, 

 even if they were unsustained by the characteristic effluvium, 

 which no ablutions can prevent, and if their cranial coverings 

 were less conspicuous. Like all negroes they are great lovers 

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