298 LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. [Chap. XI. 



20th May. — A thunder-shower from the east laid the 

 dust and cooled the ground : the last shower of this season, 

 as a similar slight shower was the finish up of the last on 

 the 12th of May. (21st May.) This cannot be called a 

 rainy month : April is the last month of the wet season, 

 and November the first. 



22nd May. — Casembe is so slow with his fish, meal, and 

 guides, and his people so afraid to hurry him, that I 

 think of going off as soon as Mohamad Bogharib moves ; 

 he is going to Chikumbi's to buy copper, and thence he 

 will proceed to Uvira to exchange that for ivory ; but this 

 is at present kept as a secret from his slaves. The way 

 seems thus to be opening for me to go to the large Lake 

 west of Uvira. 



I told Casembe that we were going ; he said to me 

 that if in coming back I had found no travelling party, I 

 must not risk going by Nsama's road with so few people, 

 but must go to his brother Moenempanda, and he would 

 send men to guide me to him, and thence he would send me 

 safely by his path along Lake Moero : this was all very 

 good. 



23rd May. — The Arabs made a sort of sacrifice of a 

 goat which was cooked all at once ; they sent a good dish 

 of it to me. They read the Koran very industriously, and 

 prayed for success or luck in leaving, and seem sincerely 

 religious, according to the light that is in them. The use 

 of incense and sacrifices brings back the old Jewish times 

 to mind. 



A number of people went off to the Kanengwa, a rivulet 

 an hour south of this, to build huts ; there they are to take 

 leave of Casembe, for the main body goes off to-morrow, 

 after we have seen the new moon. They are very particular 

 in selecting lucky days, and anything unpleasant that may 

 have happened in one month is supposed to be avoided by 

 choosing a different day for beginning an enterprise in the 



