CHAP. II 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



6i 



Unfortunately the rifle was too well aimed, and the man 

 fell to the ground, shot between the two shoulders. 



I was forced to accept the Balook Bashi's statement, 

 though unsupported by corroborative testimony of others. 

 As it happened that this man had not only continually 

 boasted that he would desert, but also had made repeated 

 attempts to do so, and was in fact the man who had 

 loaded his rifle on the previous day, I cannot say that 

 my pity for the poor wretch was as great as it certainly 

 would otherwise have been. However, I took this oppor- 

 tunity to break the Balook Bashi to the ranks, and pun- 

 ished him severely. I then made Ramazan chief of the 

 Soudanese, in his stead. 



From this time on. Lieutenant von Hohnel left the 

 canoes and marched with the caravan. I put four of 

 my best men with the river column, and arranged to 

 meet them about four days' journey up the river, at a 

 place called Malkakofira — the first village of the Galla. 



The Tana River has on its shores three distinct tribes. 

 At the coast, in the neighbourhood of Kau, there are 

 some four or five hundred Galla; then for loo miles 

 the Pokomo inhabit both banks ; then comes a reach 

 of about sixty miles, uninhabited, with the exception of 

 small and scattered bands of people, who live by hunt- 

 ing and fishing. These people are called Wasania, 

 and are not akin to either the Galla or Pokomo. From 

 Malkakofira to the district of Korokoro, the country is 

 inhal^itcd by both Galla and Pokomo. The Galla 

 inhabiting this portion of the river are a finer type 

 than those who live near the coast, and much more 

 numerous. They keep the Pokomo in a state of sub- 

 jection, forcing them to give them a certain portion of 



