214 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



the archipelago of neighbouring islets, appear the two 

 features which have given to this lake the name of 

 Ukerewe. The Arabs call them " Jezirah " — an am- 

 biguous term, meaning equally insula and peninsula — 

 but they can scarcely be called islands. The high and 

 rocky Mazita to the east, and the comparatively flat 

 Ukerewe on the west, are described by the Arabs as 

 points terminating seawards in bluffs, and connected 

 with the eastern shore by a low neck of land, probably 

 a continuous reef, flooded during the rains, but never 

 so deeply as to prevent cattle fording the isthmus. 

 The northern and western extremities front deep 

 w r ater, and a broad channel separates them from the 

 southern shore, Usukuma. The Arabs, when visiting 

 Ukerewe or its neighbour, prefer hiring the canoes 

 of the Wasukuma, and paddling round the south- 

 eastern extremity of the Nyanza, to exposing their 

 property and lives by marching through the dangerous 

 tribes of the coast. 



Mazita belongs to a people called Makwiya. Ukerewe 

 is inhabited, according to some informants, by Wasu- 

 kuma ; according to others, the Wakerewe are marked 

 by their language as ancient emigrants from the high- 

 lands of Karagwah. In Ukerewe, which is exceedingly 

 populous, are two brother Sultans : the chief is 

 " Machunda ; " the second, " Ibanda," rules at Wiru, 

 the headland on the western limit. The people collect 

 ivory from the races on the eastern mainland, and store 

 it, awaiting an Arab caravan. Beads are in most re- 

 quest ; as in Usukuma generally, not half a dozen 

 cloths of native and foreign manufacture will be 

 found upon a hundred men. The women are especi- 

 ally badly clad ; even the adult maidens wear only the 

 languti of India, or the Nubian apron of aloe-fibre, 



