THE WATOSI. 



185 



amongst the mountains. A species of manatus (?) 

 supplies a fine skin used for clothing. The simbi, or 

 cowrie (Cyprasa), is the minor currency of the country: 

 it is brought from the coast by return caravans of 

 Wanyamwezi. 



The country of Karagwah is at present the head- 

 quarters of the Watosi, a pastoral people who are scat- 

 tered throughout these Lake Regions. They came, 

 according to tradition, from Usingo, a mountain district 

 lying to the north of Uhha. They refuse to carry loads, 

 to cultivate the ground, or to sell one another. Harm- 

 less, and therefore unarmed, they are often plundered, 

 though rarely slain, by other tribes, and they protect 

 themselves by paying fees in cattle to the chiefs. When 

 the Wahinda are sultans, the Watosi appear as coun- 

 cillors and elders ; but whether this rank is derived from 

 a foreign and superior origin, or is merely the price of 

 their presents, cannot be determined. In appearance 

 they are a tall, comely, and comparatively fair people ; 

 hence in some parts every " distinguished foreigner " is 

 complimented by being addressed as " Mtosi." They 

 are said to derive themselves from a single ancestor, and 

 to consider the surrounding tribes as serviles, from 

 whom they will take concubines, but to whom they 

 refuse their daughters. Some lodges of this people 

 were seen about Unyanyembe and Msene, where they 

 live by selling cattle, milk, and butter. Their villages 

 are poor, dirty, and unpalisaded ; mere scatters of rag- 

 ged round huts. They have some curious practices: 

 never eat out of their own houses, and, after returning 

 from abroad, test, by a peculiar process, the fidelity of 

 their wives before anointing themselves and entering 

 their houses. The Arabs declare that they are known 

 by their black gums, which they consider a beauty. 



