98 TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERU 



during the night. As the sun rose higher the number of our 

 visitors increased, till every shady corner was crowded with a 

 chattering mob. The open space between our tent and the 

 warehouse was particularly popular, and was always full of 

 women and children offering their wares for sale, who were 

 none of them in any hurry to go, the pretty ones especially not 

 dreaming of returning home till sunset. And another eager 

 group was generally gathered beneath the spreading shade of 

 our village-tree. Every clay great bunches of bananas of dif- 

 ferent kinds were brought to us, some ripe and golden, others 

 still green. The latter were skinned, cut in slices, and fried. 

 There was plenty of pombe, or banana wine, too, in anything 

 but appetising-looking earthenware vessels. Our Zanzibaris, 

 however, tossed off the contents, taking a pull, first from one 

 and then from another jar, with the air of experienced con- 

 noisseurs, till the women selling the wine became impatient 

 and gave vent to shrill cries of protest. Amongst other things 

 offered for sale were flat straw spoons filled with a finely 

 ground white flour made of maize, or a kind of red-coloured 

 meal of bananas and dhurra mixed together ; skinned and dried 

 manioc, yams, potatoes, tomatoes, colocosia, tobacco, dhurra, 

 maize ; a kind of eleusine still in the husk, packed in 

 cylindrical-shaped wooden vessels with leather covers ; and 

 quantities of long steins of sugar-cane, which were set up 

 against the trunks of the trees until they found a purchaser. 

 Honey, too, was brought into camp almost every day, and now 

 and then a little fellow would appear with a hen tucked under 

 his arm. 



Our men received every six days about 1 J } v ard of stuff or 

 thirty strings of beads, and were very happy and contented in 

 being able to pick and choose for themselves amongst all these 

 wares. The market was open all day long, and everything 

 went on fairly quietly until the afternoon, when the arrival of 



