io6 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT chap. 



he had been born a Mkamba, a people inhabiting the 

 country stretching from the Tana almost to Mombasa. 

 He said he had visited the coast upon two occasions, 

 where he had acquired his knowledge of Swahili. Most 

 of his life, however, had been spent on the mountains, 

 where he cultivated a small plantation. At one time 

 he had been married, but for some reason or other his 

 wife had left him, and he seemed to have no particular 

 attachment to his home. 



During his stay with us he associated but little with 

 the porters, whom he appeared to look down upon as 

 a lower order of beings. The porters returned this feel- 

 ing with interest, their feeling being caused not only 

 by his treatment of them, but also by the fact that 

 he was afflicted with a curious skin disease. His black 

 body was covered here and there with large yellow 

 spots, and the skin of his hands and feet was cracked 

 in many places. Our men said he was a leper, and 

 this may have been the case ; but, leper or not (cer- 

 tainly none of our men, as far as I know, suffered 

 any ill effects from his close contact with them), he 

 proved of the greatest assistance to us on many occa- 

 sions. Throughout his stay with our caravan he showed 

 that he had cast his lot with ours, and was ever ready 

 to place at our disposal whatever knowledge he pos- 

 sessed concerning the countries and peoples through 

 which w^e passed. 



From him we learned that the highest peak of the 

 mountain range was called Jombeni ; so we gave this 

 name to the entire range. He said that it was inhabited 

 by many tribes, which, although they remained distinct 

 from one another, spoke very much the same dialect. 



