URUNDI. 



145 



"north-east from, the Tanganyika. His settlement, ac- 

 cording to the Arabs, is of considerable extent ; the 

 huts are built of rattan, and lions abound in the 

 vicinity. 



Urundi differs from the lake regions generally in 

 being a strictly monarchical country, locally governed 

 by Watware or headmen, who transmit the customs 

 and collections at stated periods to their suzerain. The 

 Mwame, it is said, can gather in a short time a large 

 host of warriors who are the terror of the neighbouring 

 tribes. The Warundi are evidently natives of a high 

 cold country ; they are probably the " white people 

 resembling Abyssinians," and dwelling near the Lake, 

 of whom European geographers have heard from Zan- 

 zibar. The complexion varies from a tawny yellow, 

 the colour of the women, to a clear dark brown, which 

 is so brightened by the daily use of ochre mixed with 

 palm-oil, that in few cases the real tint is discernible. 

 The men tattoo with circles and lines like cupping-cuts; 

 some burn up alti rilievi of large shining lumps an inch 

 in diameter, a decoration not a little resembling large 

 boils ; others chip the fore teeth like the W anyamwezi. 

 Their limbs are stout and well proportioned, many 

 stand upwards of six feet high, and they bear the ap- 

 pearance of a manly and martial race. Their dress is 

 the mbugu, worn in the loosest way ; their arms are 

 heavy spears, sime, and unusually strong arrows ; their 

 ornaments are beads, brass wire, and streaks of a 

 carmine-coloured substance, like the red farinaceous 

 powder called in India gulal, drawn across the head 

 and forehead. The Waganga, or priests of Urundi, 

 wear a curious hood, a thatch of long white grass or 

 fibre, cut away at the face and allowed to depend behind 

 over the shoulders ; their half-naked figures, occasion- 



VOL. II. L 



