DAY AT UJIJI. 



89 



toes, yams, and several kinds of beans, especially a 

 white harricot, which afforded many a puree) the 

 only fruit procurable was the plantain, and the only 

 drink — the toddy being a bad imitation of vinegar — was 

 water. 



As evening approached I made an attempt to sit under 

 the broad eaves of the Tembe, and to enjoy the de- 

 licious spectacle of this virgin Nature, and the reveries 

 to which it gave birth. 



" A pleasing land of drowsihed it was, 



Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye, 

 And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 

 For ever flushing round a summer sky." 



It reminded me of the loveliest glimpses of the Medi- 

 terranean ; there were the same " laughing tides," pel- 

 lucid sheets of dark blue water, borrowing their tints 

 from the vinous shores beyond ; the same purple light 

 of youth upon the cheek of the earlier evening, the same 

 bright sunsets, with their radiant vistas of crimson and 

 gold opening like the portals of a world beyond the skies ; 

 the same short-lived grace and loveliness of the twilight ; 

 and, as night closed over the earth, the same cool flood 

 of transparent moonbeam, pouring on the tufty heights 

 and bathing their sides with the whiteness of virgin 

 snow. 



At 7 p.m., as the last flush faded from the Occident, the 

 lamp — a wick in a broken pot full of palm oil — ■ was 

 brought in ; Said bin Salim appeared to give the news 

 of the day, — how A. had abused B., and how C. had 

 nearly been beaten by D., and a brief conversation led to 

 the hour of sleep. A dreary, dismal day, you will ex- 

 claim, gentle reader ; a day that 



"lasts out a night in Russia, 

 When nights are longest there." 



