MURIVUMBA OF THE MAN-EATERS. 



115 



dangerous to the living than to the dead. In order to 

 keep them quiet, the bull-headed Mabruki, shortly before 

 dusk, fired a charge of duck-shot into the village ; 

 ensued loud cries and deprecations to the " Murun- 

 gwana," but happily no man was hurt. Sayfu the 

 melancholist preferred squatting through the night on 

 the bow of the canoe, to trusting his precious person 

 on shore. We slept upon a reed-margined spit of sand, 

 and having neglected to pitch the tent, were rained 

 upon to our heart's content. 



We left Murivumba of the man-eaters early on the 

 morning of the 24th April, and stood northwards along 

 the western shore of the Lake : the converging trend of 

 the two coasts told that we were fast approaching our 

 destination. After ten hours' paddling, halts included, 

 we landed at the southern frontier of Uvira, in a place 

 called Mamaletua, Ngovi, and many other names. 

 Here the stream of commerce begins to set strong; the 

 people were comparatively civil, they cleared for us a 

 leaky old hut with a floor like iron, — it appeared to 

 us a palace ! — and they supplied, at moderate prices, 

 sheep and goats, fish-fry, eggs, and poultry, grain, 

 manioc and bird-pepper. 



After another long stretch of fifteen rainy and sunny 

 hours, a high easterly wind compelled the hard-worked 

 crews to put into Muikamba ( ?) of Uvira. A neigh- 

 bouring hamlet, a few hovels built behind a thick wind- 

 wrung plantain-grove, backed a reed-locked creek, 

 where the canoes floated in safety and a strip of clean 

 sand on which we passed the night as pleasantly as the 

 bright moonlight and the violent gusts would permit. 

 On the 26th April, a paddle of three hours and a half 

 landed us in the forenoon at the sandy baystand, where 

 the trade of Uvira is carried on. 



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