216 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN. 



and some tears followed the allusion to the subject. Beads being 

 offered ; she preferred the red to the blue, according to the general 

 taste in this part of Africa. Of the other girls, one came from ' Ka- 

 puta;' and the third, from ' Aseta.' 



A fourth girl whom I interrogated, was too young to give much 

 information ; and she besides, had not yet learned the Soahili lan- 

 guage. It appeared, that she "had been stolen by some Chaga ; that 

 she came from the vicinity of the Kilmungaro mountain" (which is 

 visible from the sea); and that she " understood the language of the 

 other girls, when they were brought together." 



A highly intelligent lad, who had the lobe of one ear perforated, 

 stated, that the size of this opening among the M'Kuafi " indicates 

 the rank of the individual; the king having one of very remarkable 

 dimensions." With regard to his own history, he stated, that "on the 

 occasion of an attack by some foreign tribe, he with other children, 

 hid themselves; but the circumstance had been observed from a dis- 

 tance by some Wampugo, who came to the spot and carried them 

 away. The towns of the M'Kuafi are n(jt fixed ; but when the grass 

 fails, a new one is made in another place. The M'Kuafi ride don- 

 keys ; they eat beef and sheep, and drink water and milk. It is cus- 

 tomary when a man kills a bullock, to send a piece to the king, to 

 give away another on account of circumcision, and then to call his 

 friends to eat the remainder. There are cameleopards in the country ; 

 and poor people, who have no bullocks, kill them for food, taking them 

 in pitfalls, or sometimes with poison. The mode of circumcising, dif- 

 fers from that prevailing among Muslims. The government likewise 

 differs; and if one man kills another, the price of blood is from ten to 

 twenty bullocks." 



" The M'Kuafi put on a cap of ostrich feathers, when they go out to 

 fight. On a former occasion, they beat the M'Sigua, taking all the 

 cattle, which they sold at Zanzibar. They fight with the Wakamba, 

 towards sunrise; and they are so warlike, that they would fight even 

 with their nearest relations. They sometimes go to the Monomoisy 

 country, to fight and take property ; but not into the country of the 

 Chaga, with whom they do not fight, unless meeting by accident. 

 They fight however with the Lupalaconga, who live on a mountain, 

 and speak the same language with the Chaga," and who, according 

 to his description, must be a Negro tribe. 

 • "His people once went towards sunrise to fight with the Sikir 

 washi ; who are the nation called Galla at Zanzibar. They saw a 



