WE ENTER UJIJI. 



47 



flanked by a crooked tree ; there, between 10 a.m. 

 and 3 p.m. — weather permitting — a mass of standing 

 and squatting negroes buy and sell, barter and ex- 

 change, offer and chaffer with a hubbub heard for miles, 

 and there a spear or dagger-thrust brings on, by no 

 means unfrequently, a skirmishing faction-fight. The 

 articles exposed for sale are sometimes goats, sheep, and 

 poultry, generally fish, vegetables, and a few fruits, 

 plantains, and melons ; palm- wine is a staple commodity, 

 and occasionally an ivory or a slave is hawked about : 

 those industriously disposed employ themselves during 

 the intervals of bargaining in spinning a coarse yarn 

 with the rudest spindle, or in picking the cotton, which 

 is placed in little baskets on the ground. I was led to a 

 ruinous Tembe, built by an Arab merchant, Hamid bin 

 Salim, who had allowed it to be tenanted by ticks and 

 slaves. Situated, however, half a mile from, and 

 backed by, the little village of Kawele, whose mushroom- 

 huts barely protruded their summits above the dense 

 vegetation, and placed at a similar distance from the 

 water in front, it had the double advantage of proxi- 

 mity to provisions, and of a view which at first was 

 highly enjoyable. The Tanganyika is ever seen to ad- 

 vantage from its shores: upon its surface the sight 

 wearies with the unvarying tintage — all shining greens 

 and hazy blues — whilst continuous parallels of lofty 

 hills, like the sides of a huge trough, close the prospect 

 and suggest the idea of confinement. 



And now, lodged with comparative comfort, in the 

 cool Tembe, I will indulge in a few geographical and 

 ethnological reminiscences of the country lately tra- 

 versed. 



The fifth region includes the alluvial valley of the 

 Malagarazi River, which subtends the lowest spires of the 



