20 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



tend cattle, and cultivate sorghum and maize, millet and 

 pulse, cucumbers, and water-melons. Apparently they 

 are poor, being generally clad in skins. They barter 

 slaves and ivory in small quantities to the merchants, 

 and some travel to the coast. They are considered 

 treacherous by their neighbours, and Mapokera, the 

 Sultan of Tura, is, according to the Arabs, prone to 

 commit " avanies" They are known by a number of 

 small lines formed by raising the skin with a needle, 

 and opening it by points 1 iterally between the hair of 

 the temples and the eyebrows. In appearance they are 

 dark and uncomely; their arms are bows and arrows, 

 spears and knives stuck in the leathern waistbelt ; some 

 wear necklaces of curiously plaited straw, others a 

 strip of white cowskin bound around the brow — a truly 

 savage and African decoration. Their language differs 

 from Kinyamwezi. 



The Wanyamwezi tribe, the proprietors of the soil, is 

 the typical race in this portion of Central Africa : its 

 comparative industry and commercial activity have se- 

 cured to it a superiority over the other kindred races. 



The aspect of the Wanyamwezi is alone sufficient to 

 disprove the existence of very elevated lands in this 

 part of the African interior. They are usually of a 

 dark sepia-brown, rarely coloured like diluted Indian 

 ink, as are the Wahiao and slave races to the south, 

 with negroid features markedly less Semitic than the 

 people of the eastern coast. The effluvium from their 

 skins, especially after exercise or excitement, marks 

 their connection with the negro. The hair curls crisply, 

 but it grows to the length of four or five inches before 

 it splits ; it is usually twisted into many little ringlets 

 or hanks; it hangs down like a fringe to the neck, and 

 is combed off the forehead after the manner of the 



