mandaka's threats 



199 



enough, for Europeans were as fond of fat oxen as hyaenas 

 {wasunga Kana wanaona ugombe a mafuta, saua kana mafissi). 

 Mandara gave vent to his spleen in many other aspersions ; 

 for instance, he called Miriali the European's donkey driver 

 (mtschunga a punda a wasungu) because he took care of our 

 animals for us, and though the latter could not help laughing 

 when he told us, he was really a good deal alarmed at the 

 threats of his powerful father-in-law. 



The end of the month of Eamadan, the Mahomedan fast, 

 the beginning of which our people had celebrated at Taveta 

 with so much shouting and firing of guns, had now come. Our 

 porters were only Mahomedans now and then, when it hap- 

 pened to suit them ; in fact, with them, as with the wild beasts 

 of the primaeval forests, their only god was their belly, so that 

 the conclusion of Eamadan was a great occasion for them, and 

 they demanded a bullock to celebrate it. One was given to 

 them, but when they carried their impudence so far as to say 

 that it was not enough to fill 60 stomachs and they must have 

 another, we thought a few cuts with a stick might add weight 

 to their religious convictions. When we were at Taveta they 

 would take Friday as a holiday on account of its being a 

 Mahomedan feast-day, and then claim Sunday as well. 



One afternoon Miriali took us to a beautiful waterfall on 

 the Monja stream, the noise of which reached the camp. The 

 clear full volume of water here flung itself down from a height 

 of some 36 or 37 feet. This fall is the first of three cataracts 

 formed by the Monja in its upper course, and after its junction 

 with the Uona there is a fourth larger than any of these. 



The evening before we left, Miriali asked us to write a testi- 

 monial saying we were satisfied with his treatment of us, and 

 this we were able to do gladly and conscientiously, for he had 

 never begged, and for all the presents Count Teleki gave him of 

 his own free will he had returned full measure in oxen, goats, 



