WAGARAMO VILLAGES. 953 



" Beyond a general idea of the situation of the mouth, our pilot knew no- 

 thing of the river, while the guide's want of knowledge respecting the higher 

 portion of the stream was only exceeded by his ignorance of Kizaramo, in 

 ■which language he professed to be a proficient. No one else in Bagamoyo, 

 however, professed even to know anything of the river, and after all the guide 

 was very useful, having travelled through Uzaramo before, and being able to 

 point out the different places situated on the main roads to Tungouiero and 

 Mpwapwa. As, moreover, the majority of the people spoke Swahili fluently, 

 it turned out that an interpreter was not needed. 



" Up to the ferry of Meituwambiji, on the Ukami road, the people dwell- 

 ing on both banks are Swahili, or slaves cultivating the plantations of pro- 

 prietors resident at Bagamoyo, and mostly professing Mohammedanism. 

 Shortly beyond this, Wagaramo villages commence. The first signs of these 

 were small groups of women and children on the banks, attended by a few more 

 than half-naked savages, each carrying a bow and two poisoned arrows ready 

 in hand, with a leathern quiver of the same at his back. These warriors 

 generally knelt in the tall grass or behind a bush, until the women reported 

 there was no danger. They have the head hideously thatched with a mixture 

 of black clay and oil, with beads or drops of the same at the ends of the rat- 

 tail-shaped points of hair which fringe it ; their legs and arms are encircled 

 ■with heavy brass and copper rings, a few ornaments of beads or white shells 

 adorning their ears and necks. Both bows and arrows are most workman- 

 like in make and finish; the poison extends for about four inches below the 

 barb; when fresh, it is of a bright-red colour. They told me it is prepared 

 from the giant euphorbia, and that their medicine-men provide them with a 

 perfect antidote for it, but I failed to learn the nature or to procure a speci- 

 men of this compound. Many of the children are got up in the same way as 

 the men, carrying, however, miniature bows and arrows, the latter tipped 

 with hardwood points, and the shaft stained red where the poison should 

 be. 



" But this warlike appearance seems only a keeping up of the customs of a 

 generation now rapidly passing away. On closer acquaintance, these fierce- 

 looking persons were found to be generally of a timid disposition, and by no 

 means prone to an indiscriminate use of their weapons. Whenever a herd of 

 hippopotami in the channel rendered it necessary to sound the steam-whistle, 

 or the donkey-engine was turned on, they instantly fled for the nearest cover, 

 or carefully got the women and children between themselves and the supposed 

 danger, and rarely showed again unless the boat stayed a time for wood or 

 provisions, when they were the last to draw near. 



"The women were, as a rule, much less timid; they are mostly fairer 

 than the Swahili, and their faces have few traces of the negro type. They 

 are, however, more sadly in want of clothing than even the men, and wear 

 v 4 



