118 • TAVETA AND MOUNTS KILIMANJARO AND MERIT 



so unkind rumour said, was a great flirt ; in fact our tent was 

 besieged. But this did not put us about much, though it 

 hastened our departure, as we saw we should not get another 

 moment to ourselves. 



We meant to start again early on the 16th instant, but 

 it poured so with rain that we had to wait some hours. 

 Miriali, who seemed eager to make the very elements yield to 

 our wishes, was greatly distressed, and told us he had instructed 

 his mganga (medicine-man) to stop the rain the evening 

 before. Then he went home, probably to drown his regret in 

 wine, for when we passed a few hours afterwards he was 

 sitting on a heap of dried banana-leaves, quite tipsy from the 

 pombe he had drunk. 



To avoid a very bad bit of road we had to go back in the 

 direction we had come, not turning westwards till we had 

 passed very near our old camping-place on the Sagana stream. 



We halted at an abrupt bend of the Huna river, beneath 

 beautiful and lofty trees. A number of straw huts in good 

 condition, old corks, bones, &c, proved that we had chosen a 

 spot lately occupied by the English hunting party. These 

 relics had attracted a great number of butterflies with brilliant 

 gleaming red and green wings. Late in the evening some men 

 arrived from the chief of Mochi, bringing an ox as a present 

 for Jumbe Kimemeta. This was meant to induce Kimemeta 

 to get us to go to Mochi ; but the leader of our caravan knew 

 Count Teleki did not wish to open relations with Mandara, so 

 in spite of the risk of hurting his feelings the ox was sent 

 back. 



During the next day we followed a westerly course on a 

 wooded plain at the foot of Kilimanjaro. On the 17th we 

 crossed several ravines and camped by the Kirua stream. We 

 now left the beaten track altogether, and followed a mere 

 game-spoor, none of our men knowing the way. Eain fell 



