RUHEMBE. 



261 



of the morning was pure and good, most enjoyable 

 travelling. After about five hours we descended into 

 the basin of the Ruhembe rivulet, which seems to be 

 the " Rohambi people " of Mr. Cooley's Itinerary. (Geo- 

 graphy of N'yassi, p. 22.) The inhabitants are Wasa- 

 gara ; they supply travellers with manioc, grain, and 

 bitter egg-plants, of a scarlet colour resembling tornatos. 

 Cultivation flourishes upon the hill-sides and in the 

 swampy grounds about the sole of the basin, which is 

 bisected by a muddy and apparently stagnant stream 

 ten feet broad. We pitched tents in the open central 

 space of a village, and met a caravan of Wasawahili 

 from Zanzibar, who reported to Said bin Salim the gra- 

 tifying intelligence that, in consequence of a rumour of 

 his decease, his worthy brother, Ali bin Salim, had 

 somewhat prematurely laid violent hands upon his goods 

 and .chattels. 



The porters would have halted on the next day, but 

 the excited Said exerted himself manfully ; at 2 p.m. 

 we were once more on the road. Descending from the 

 village-eminence, we crossed in a blazing sun the fetid 

 Ruhembe; and, after finding with some difficulty the 

 jungly path, we struck into a pleasant forest, like that 

 traversed on the last march. It was cut by water- 

 courses draining south, and at these places it was ne- 

 cessary to dismount. At 6 p.m. appeared a clearing, 

 with sundry villages and clumps of the Mgude tree, 

 whose tufty summits of the brightest green, gilt by the 

 last rays of the sun, formed a lovely picture. The 

 porters would have rested at this spot, but they were 

 forced forwards by the sons of Ramji. Presently we 

 emerged upon the southern extremity of the Makata 

 Plain, a hideous low level of black vegetable earth, 

 peaty in appearance, and, bearing long puddles of dark 



s 3 



