168 



THE LAKE REGIONS OP CENTRAL AFRICA. 



Karagwah, and the greater part of the commercial body 

 was scattered in trading-trips over the country. I 

 had the satisfaction of finding that my last indent on 

 Zanzibar for 400 dollars' worth of cloth and beads 

 had arrived under the charge of Tani bin Sulayyam, 

 who claimed four Gorah or pieces for safe conduct. I 

 also recovered, though not without some display of 

 force, the table and chair left by the escort and the 

 slaves in the Dungomaro Nullah. The articles had been 

 found by one Muinyi Khamisi, a peddling and not over- 

 honest Msawahili, who demanded an unconscionable 

 sum for porterage, and whose head-piece assumed the 

 appearance of a coal-scuttle when rewarded with the six 

 cloths proposed by Snay bin Amir. The debauched 

 Wazira, who had remained behind at Msene, appeared 

 with an abundance of drunken smiles, sideling in at the 

 doorway, which he scratched more Africano with one 

 set of five nails, whilst the other was applied to a similar 

 purpose a posteriori. He was ejected, despite his loud 

 asseverations that he, and he only, could clear us through 

 the dangerous Wagogo. The sons of Eamji, who, 

 travelling from Msene, had entered Kazeh on the day 

 preceding our arrival, came to the house en masse, 

 headed by Kidogo, with all the jaunty and sans-souci 

 gait and manner of yore. I had imagined that by that 

 time they would have found their way to the coast. 

 I saw no reason, however, for re-engaging them, 

 and they at once returned to the gaieties of their 

 capital. 



During the first week following the march all paid 

 the inevitable penalty of a toilsome trudge through a 

 perilous jungly country, in the deadliest season of the 

 year, when the waters are drying up under a fiery sun, 

 and a violent vent de Use from the East, which pours 



