394 THE RAIN-CHARMER. Chap. XXIX 



indication of silver, and, if it ever was worked by the natives, 

 they have entirely lost the knowledge of it, and cannot dis- 

 tinguish between silver and tin. 



In leaving the river I was partly influenced by a wisli to 

 avoid several chiefs, who levy a heavy tribute on all pas- 

 sengers. Our path lay along the bed of the Nake for some 

 distance, the banks of which were covered with impene- 

 trable thickets, and the surrounding country was hilly. The 

 villages were not numerous, but we were treated kindly by 

 the people, who here call themselves Bambiri, though the 

 general name of the nation is Banyai. They have reclaimed 

 their gardens from the forest, and the soil is extremely fertile. 

 The Nake is 50 or 60 yards wide, but during most of the year 

 is dry, affording water only by digging in the sand. It was 

 now ankle-deep, and its water more than lukewarm from the 

 heat of the sun. We found in its bed masses of volcanic rock, 

 identical with those which I subsequently saw at Aden. 



13th. — I sent my last fragment of cloth as a present to 

 Nyampnngo, the head-man of these parts, with a request that 

 we should be furnished with a guide to the next chief. After 

 a long conference with his council the cloth was returned 

 with a promise of compliance, and a request for some beads 

 only. This man is supposed to possess the charm for rain, 

 and other tribes send to him to beg it, whence we may infer 

 that less rain falls in this country than in Londa. Nyara- 

 pungo behaved in quite a gentlemanly manner, presenting 

 me with some rice, and telling my people to go amongst the 

 villages and beg for themselves. An old man, father-in-law 

 of the chief, told me that he had seen books before, but never 

 knew what they meant. They pray to departed chiefs and 

 relatives, but the idea of praying to God seemed new, and 

 they heard it with reverence. Nyampungo is afflicted with 

 a kind of disease called Sesenda, which I imagine to be a 

 species of leprosy common in this quarter, though they are a 

 cleanly people. He never had any cattle ; and when I asked 

 him why he did not possess these useful animals, he said, 

 " Who would give us the medicine to enable us to keep 

 them ? " I afterwards found out the reason to be the preva- 

 lence of tsetse, but of this he was ignorant, having supposed 

 that he could not keep cattle because he had no medicine. 



