62 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



not chain or cord together their gangs till they have 

 reached the east bank of the Malagarazi River, often 

 lose 20 per cent. The prevalence of the practice has 

 already given Ujiji a bad name, and, if continued, will 

 remove the market to another place, where the people 

 are somewhat less clever and more sensible. It is im- 

 possible to give any idea of the average price of the 

 human commodity, which varies, under the modifica- 

 tions of demand and supply, from two to ten doti or 

 tobes of American domestics. Yet as these purchases 

 sell in Zanzibar for fourteen or fifteen dollars per head, 

 the trade realises nearly 500 per cent., and will, therefore, 

 with difficulty be put down. 



The principal tribes in this region are the Wajiji, the 

 Wavinza, the Wakaranga, the Watuta, the Wabuha, and 

 the Wahha. 



The Wajiji are a burly race of barbarians, far stronger 

 than the tribes hitherto traversed, with dark skins, 

 plain features, and straight, sturdy limbs: they are 

 larger and heavier men than the Wanyamwezi, and the 

 type, as it approaches Central Africa, becomes rather 

 negro than negroid.* Their feet and hands are large 

 and flat, their voices are harsh and strident, and their 

 looks as well as their manners are independent even to 

 insolence. The women, who are held in high repute, 

 resemble, and often excel, their masters in rudeness and 



* My companion observes (in Blackwood, Nov. 1859), "It may be worthy 

 of remark that I have always found the lighter coloured savages more bois- 

 terous and warlike than those of the dingier hue. The ruddy black, fleshy- 

 looking Wazaramos and Wagogos are much lighter in colour (!) than any 

 of the other tribes, and certainly have a far superior, more manly and war- 

 like independent spirit and bearing than any of the others." The "dingiest" 

 peoples are usually the most degraded, and therefore sometimes the least 

 powerful ; but the fiercest races in the land are the Wazaramo, the Wajiji 

 and the Wataturu, who are at the same time the darkest. 



