110 THE LAKE KEGI0NS OF CENTKAL AFEICA. 



northern sky. Having loaded the canoes, however, 

 we embarked to cross the channel which separated us 

 from the Ubwari island. As the paddles were in hand, 

 the crew, starting up from their benches, landed to bring 

 on board some forgotten manioc. My companion re- 

 mained in his boat, I in mine. Presently, hearing an 

 unusual uproar, I turned round and saw the sailors 

 arming themselves, whilst the " curtain-lion," Khuda- 

 bakhsh, was being hustled with blows, and pushed up 

 the little cliff by a host of black spearmen ; a naked 

 savage the while capering about, waving the Baloch's 

 bare blade in one hand and its scabbard in the other. 

 Kannena joined majestically in the "row," but the 

 peals of laughter from the mob showed no signs 

 of anger. A Mjiji slave, belonging to Khuda- 

 bakhsh had, it appears, taken flight, after landing 

 unobserved with the crowd. The brave had redemanded 

 him of Kannena, whom he charged, moreover, with aid- 

 ing and abetting the desertion. The slave Sultan offered 

 to refer the point to me, but the valiant man, losing 

 patience, out with his sword, and was instantly dis- 

 armed, assaulted, and battered, as above described, by 

 forty or fifty sailors. When quiet was restored, I 

 called to him from the boat. He replied by refusing to 

 "budge an inch," and by summoning his "brother" 

 Jelai to join him with bag and baggage. Kannena 

 also used soft words, till at last, weary of waiting, he 

 gave orders to put off, throwing two cloths to Khuda- 

 bakhsh, that the fellow might not return home hungry. 

 I admired his generosity till compelled to pay for it. 



The two Baloch were like mules ; they disliked the 

 voyage, and as it was the Ramazan, they added to their 

 discomforts by pretending to fast. Their desertion was in- 

 excusable ; they left us wholly in the power of the Wajiji, 



