1871.] MAXYUEMA MOURNING. 1 13 



in our course N.W. They had slept on the ridge after we 

 saw them, aud next morning, in sheer wantonness, fired their 

 lodgings, — their slaves had evidently carried the fire along 

 from their lodgings, and set fire to houses of villages in 

 their route as a sort of horrid Moslem Nigger joke ; it was 

 done only because they could do it without danger of punish- 

 ment : it was such fun to make the Mashense, as they call 

 all natives, houseless. Men are worse than beasts of prey, 

 if indeed it is lawful to call Zanzibar slaves men. It is 

 monstrous injustice to compare free Africans living under 

 their own chiefs and laws, and cultivating their own free 

 lands, with what slaves afterwards become at Zanzibar and 

 elsewhere. ' 



26th Julij. — Came up out of the last valley of denu- 

 dation — that drained by Kahembai, and then along a level 

 land with open forest. Four men passed us in hot haste to 

 announce the death of a woman at their village to her rela- 

 tions living at another. I heard of several deaths lately of 

 dysentery. Pleurisy is common from cold winds from N.W. 

 Twenty-two men with large square black shields, capable 

 of completely hiding the whole person, came next in a 

 trot to receive the body of their relative and all her gear to 

 carry her to her own home for burial : about twenty women 

 followed them, and the men waited under the trees till they 

 should have wound the body up and wept over her. They 

 smeared their bodies with clay, and their faces with soot. 

 Reached our friend Kama. 



21th July. — Left Kama's group of villages and went 

 through many others before we reached Kasongo's, and 

 were welcomed by all the Arabs of the camp at this place. 

 Bought two milk goats reasonably, and rest over Sunday. 

 (28th and 29th). They asked permission to send a party 

 with me for goods to Ujiji ; this will increase our numbers, 

 and perhaps safety too, among the justly irritated people 

 between this and Bainbarre. All are enjoined to help me, 



