TONGO-NI RUINS. 



133 



was paddled across a bay once solid ground, in 

 whose encroaching waters, according to local 

 tradition, a flourishing city, extending over the 

 whole creek side, had been submerged. The sub- 

 marine tombs were like those of the Dead Sea : 

 apparent to the Wasawahili's eyes, they eluded 

 mine. The existing settlements are all modern, 

 and none of them appear upon Capt. Owen's 

 charts. After an hour's work we pushed up a 

 narrow creek, grounding at every ten yards, and 

 presently we reached an inlet, all mangrove 

 above and mud below. Landing at a village 

 called Tongo-ni, where the people stood to receive 

 us, we followed the shore for a few paces, turned 

 abruptly to the left, over broken ground, and 

 sighted the ruins. 



Moonlight would have tempered the view : 

 it was a grisly spectacle in the gay and glow- 

 ing shine of the sun. A city was once here ; 

 and the remnants of its mosques showed solid 

 and handsome building, columns of neatly cut 

 coralline blocks and elaborate Mihrabs, or prayer- 

 niches. Fragments of homesteads in times gone 

 by everywhere cumbered the ground, and the 

 shattered walls, choked with the luxuriant growth 

 of decay, sheltered in their shade the bat and the 

 night-jar. I was shown in an extensive ceme- 



