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CHAPTEE VIII. 



Chitapangwa's parting oath. Course laid for Lake Tanganyika. Moamba's 

 village. Another watershed. The Babemba tribe. Ill with fever. 

 Threatening attitude of Chibue's people. Continued illness. Reaches 

 cliffs overhanging Lake Liemba. Extreme beauty of the scene. Dan- 

 gerous fit of insensibility. Leaves the Lake. Pernambuco cotton. 

 Humours of war between Arabs and Nsama. Reaches Chitimba's village. 

 Presents Sultan's letter to principal Arab Hamees. The war in Itawa. 

 Geography of the Arabs. Ivory traders and slave-dealers. Appeal to 

 the Koran. Gleans intelligence of the Wasongo to the eastward, and 

 their chief, Merere. Hamees sets out against Nsama. Tedious sojourn. 

 Departure for Ponda. Native cupping. 



20th February, 1867. — I told the chief before starting that 

 my heart was sore, because he was not sending me away so 

 cordially as I liked. He at once ordered men to start with 

 us, and gave me a brass knife with ivory sheath, which he 

 had long worn, as a memorial. He explained that we ought 

 to go north as, if we made easting, we should ultimately be 

 obliged to turn west, and all our cloth would be expended 

 ere we reached the Lake Tanganyika; he took a piece of 

 clay off the ground and rubbed it on his tongue as an oath 

 that what he said was true, and came along with us to see 

 that all was right ; and so we parted. 



We soon ascended the plateau, which encloses with its 

 edge the village and stream of Molemba. Wild pigs are 

 abundant, and there are marks of former cultivation. A 

 short march brought us to an ooze, surrounded by hedges, 

 game-traps, and pitfalls, where, as we are stiff and weak, 

 we spend the night. Bocks abound of the same dolomite 



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