18G8.] EXTREMES MEET IX SUPERSTITION. 281. 



Wagtails are never molested, because, if they were killed, 

 death would visit the village ; this too is the case with the 

 small Whydah birds, the fear of death in the minds of the 

 people saves them from molestation. But why should we 

 be so prone to criticise ? A remnant of our own supersti- 

 tions is seen in the prejudice against sitting down thirteen 

 to dinner, spilling the salt, and not throwing a little of it 

 over the left shoulder. Ferdinand I., the King of Naples, 

 in passing through the streets, perpetually put one hand 

 into his pockets to cross the thumb over the finger in order 

 to avert the influence of the evil eye ! 



On the 6th, Muabo, the great, chief of these parts, came 

 to call on Mohamad : several men got up and made some 

 antics before him, then knelt down and did obeisance, then 

 Muabo himself jumped about a little, and all applauded. 

 He is a good-natured-looking man, fond of a joke, and always 

 .ready with a good-humoured smile: he was praised very 

 highly, Mpweto was nothing to Muabo mokolu, the great 

 Muabo ; and he returned the praise by lauding Tipo Tipo 

 and Mpamari, Mohamad's native name, which means, " Give 

 me wealth, or goods." Mohamad made a few of the ungainly 

 antics like the natives, and all were highly pleased, and 

 went off rejoicing. 



Some Arabs believe that a serpent on one of the islands 

 in the Nyanza Lake has the power of speaking, and is the 

 same that beguiled Eve. It is a crime at Ujiji to kill a 

 serpent, even thongh it enters a house and kills a kid ! 

 The native name for the people of Ujiji is Wayeiye, the 

 very same as the people on the Zouga, near Lake Ngami. 

 They are probably an offshoot from Ujiji.* 



There are underground stone houses in Kabiure, in the 

 range called Kakonia, which is near to our place of detention. 



* A chief named Moene Ungu, who admires the Arabs, sent his children 

 to Zanzibar to be instructed to read and write. 



