152 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFEICA. 



the grass till aid was afforded by their employer Mtum- 

 bara. Sama, thus victorious, burned the Arab boat, 

 and, compelling the merchants to return to Usencla, 

 seized the first opportunity of slaying his rival. The 

 Arabs have found means of sending letters to their 

 friends, but they appear unable to leave the country. 

 Their correspondence declares them to be living in 

 favour with the Kazembe, who has presented them with 

 large rice-shambas, that they have collected ivory and 

 copper in large quantities, but are unable to find porters. 

 This being highly improbable in a land where in 1807 

 a slave cost five, and a tusk of ivory six or seven 

 squares of Indian piece-goods, and as, moreover, several 

 merchants, deluded by exaggerated accounts of the 

 Kazembe's wealth and liberality, intrusted these men 

 with considerable ventures, of which no tidings have as 

 yet reached the creditors' ears, the more acute Arabs 

 suspect that their countrymen are living from hand to 

 mouth about Usenda, and are cultivating the land with 

 scant prospect of quitting it. 



The people of Marungu are called Wambozwa by the 

 Arabs; they are subject to no king, but live under local 

 rulers, and are ever at war with their neighbours. 

 They are a dark and plain, a wild and uncomely race. 

 Amongst these people is observed a custom which con- 

 nects them with the Wangindo, Wahiao, and the slave 

 races dwelling inland from Kilwa. They pierce the 

 upper lip and gradually enlarge the aperture till the 

 end projects in a kind of bill beyond the nose and chin, 

 giving to the countenance a peculiar duck-like appear- 

 ance. The Arabs, who abhor this hideous vagary of 

 fashion, scarify the sides of the hole and attempt to 

 make the flesh grow by the application of rock-salt. 

 The people of Marungu, however, are little valued as 



