1868.] AEAB KEVENGE. LEECHES. 335 



evidently does not wish me to see his strongholds. All 

 his people could go into them, though over ten thousand : 

 they are all abundantly supplied with water, and they form 

 the storehouses for grain. 



22nd October. — We came to Kabwabwata, and I hope 

 I may find a way to other underground houses. It is 

 probable that they are not the workmanship of the ances- 

 tors of the present occupants, for they ascribe their forma- 

 tion invariably to the Deity, Mulungu or Reza : if their 

 forefathers had made them, some tradition would have 

 existed of them. 



23rd October. — Syde bin Habib came over from Mpweto's ; 

 he reports Lualaba and Lufira flowing into the Lake of 

 Kiiikonza. Lungabale is paramount chief of Rua. 



Mparahala horns measured three feet long and three 

 inches in diameter at the base : this is the yellow kualata 

 of Makololo, bastard gemsbuck of the Dutch. 



21th, 29th, and 30th October. — Salem bin Habib was killed 

 by the people in Rua : he had put up a tent and they 

 attacked it in the night, and stabbed him through it. 

 Syde bin Habib waged a war of vengeance all through Rua 

 after this for the murder of his brother: Sef's raid may 

 have led the people to the murder. 



29th October. — In coming north in September and October, 

 the last months of the dry season, I crossed many burns 

 flowing quite in the manner of our brooks at home, after 

 a great deal of rain ; here, however, the water was clear, 

 and the banks not abraded in the least. Some rivulets 

 had a tinge of white in them, as if of felspar in disin- 

 tegrating granite; some nearly stagnant burns had as if 

 milk and water in them, and some red oxide of iron. 



Where leeches occur they need no coaxing to bite, but fly 

 at the white skin like furies, and refuse to let go: with 

 the fingers benumbed, though the water is only 60°, one 

 may twist them round the finger and tug, but they slip 



