WAKAMBAS. 



67 



or throwing; knives and two-edged swords of 

 fine iron, the latter a rude imitation of the straight 

 Omani blade, of which I afterwards saw speci- 

 mens upon the Congo river. Some had shock 

 heads of buttered hair, wondrous unsavoury, and 

 fit only for door-mats; others wore the thatch 

 twisted into a hundred little corkscrews ; their 

 eyes were wild and staring, their voices loud and 

 barking, and all their gestures denoted the ' noble 

 savage' who had run out of his woods for the 

 first time. They were, however, in high spirits. 

 Before last year (1857) no Arab had visited their 

 country : trading parties from Ukamba-ni sold 

 ivory to the Wanyika for four times round the 

 tusk in beads, and these middlemen, after fleecing 

 those more savage than themselves, retailed the 

 goods at high profits to the citizens. The 

 Wakamba of the coast are, of course, anxious to 

 promote intercourse between Mombasah and their 

 kinsmen of the interior, and thus the road, first 

 opened at the imminent risk of life, by the enter- 

 prising Dr Krapf, has become a temporary highway 

 into the interior of Eastern Intertropical Africa 

 — a region abounding in varied interest, and still 

 awaiting European exploration. But let not geo- 

 graphers indulge in golden visions of the future! 

 Some day the Arabs of Mombasah will seize and 



