QUALIFICATIONS OF A LAKIST CHIEF. 



71 



upon annihilating them. The affairs of the nation are 

 settled by the mwami, the chief, in a general council of 

 the lieges, the wateko (in the singular mteko) or elders 

 presiding. Their intellects, never of the brightest, are 

 invariably fuddled with toddy, and, after bawling for 

 hours together and coming apparently to the most satis- 

 factory conclusion, the word of a boy or of an old woman 

 will necessitate another lengthy palaver. The sultans, 

 like their subjects, brook no delay in their own affairs ; 

 they impatiently dun a stranger half-a-dozen times a day 

 for a few beads, while they patiently keep him waiting 

 for weeks on occasions to him of the highest importance, 

 whilst they are drinking pombe or taking leave of their 

 wives. Besides the magubiko or preliminary presents, 

 the chiefs are bound, before the departure of a caravan 

 which has given them satisfaction, to supply it with 

 half-a-dozen masuta or matted packages of grain, and 

 to present the leader with a slave, who generally man- 

 ages to abscond. The parting gifts are technically 

 called " urangozi," or guidance. 



Under the influence of slavery the Wajiji have made 

 no progress in the art of commerce. They know no- 

 thing of bargaining or of credit : they will not barter 

 unless the particular medium upon which they have set 

 their hearts is forthcoming ; and they fix a price 

 according to their wants, not to the value of the article. 

 The market varies with the number of caravans present 

 at the depot, the season, the extent of supply, and a 

 variety of similar considerations. Besides the trade in 

 ivory, slaves, bark, cloth, and palm-oil, they manufac- 

 ture and hawk about iron sickles shaped like the Eu- 

 ropean, kengere, kiugi, or small bells, and sambo, locally 

 called tambi, or wire circlets, worn as ornaments round 

 the ankles; long double-edged knives in wooden sheaths, 



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