162 



THE LAKE KEG IONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



evil good might come to another. The party gave the 

 usual amount of trouble. The bull-headed Mabruki 

 had invested his capital in a small servile, an infant 

 phenomenon, who, apparently under six years, trotted 

 manfully alongside the porters, bearing his burden of 

 hide-bed and water-gourd upon his tiny shoulder. For 

 some days he was to his surly master as her first doll to 

 a young girl : when tired he was mounted upon the 

 back, and after crossing every swamp his feet were care- 

 fully wiped. When the novelty, however, wore off, the 

 little unfortunate was so savagely beaten that I insisted 

 upon his being committed to the far less hard-hearted 

 Bombay. The Hanmals who carried my manchil were 

 the most annoying of their kind. Wanyamwezi veterans 

 of the way (their chief man wore a kizbao or waistcoat, 

 and carried an old Tower musket), originally five in 

 number, and paid in advance as far as Unyanyembe ; 

 they deserted slowly and surely, till it was necessary to 

 raise a fresh gang. For a short time they worked well, 

 then they fell off. In the mornings when their names 

 were called they hid themselves in the huts, or they 

 squatted pertinaciously near .the camp fires, or they 

 rushed ahead of the party. On the road they hurried 

 forwards, recklessly dashing the manchil, without pity 

 or remorse, against stock and stone. A man allowed 

 to lag behind never appeared again on that march, and 

 more than once they attempted to place the hammock 

 on the ground and to strike for increase of wages, till 

 brought to a sense of their duty by a sword-point ap- 

 plied to their ribs. They would halt for an hour to 

 boil their sweet potatoes, but if I required the delay of 

 five minutes, or the advance of five yards, they became 

 half mad with fidgetiness ; they were as loud-voiced, 

 noisy and insolent, as turbulent and irritable, as grum- 



