390 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



sum ; and the worst kind, which averages in breadth 36 inches, 

 represents a little less. The value of the korjah or score fluc- 

 tuates between 8 and 13 dollars. Assuming, therefore, the 

 average at 10 dollars, and the number of shukkahs~contained in 

 the gorah at 80, the price of each will represent 6d. Thus it 

 is little inferior in price to the merkani or domestics when pur- 

 chased upon the seaboard : its progress of value in the interior, 

 however, is by no means in proportion, and by some tribes it is 

 wholly rejected. 



The lucrative bead trade of Zanzibar is now almost entirely 

 in the hands of the Banyan capitalists, who, by buying up ships' 

 cargoes, establish their own prices, and produce all the inconve- 

 niences of a monopoly. In laying in a stock the traveller must 

 not trust himself to these men, who seize the opportunity of 

 palming off the waste and refuse of their warehouses : he is ad- 

 vised to ascertain from respectable Arab merchants, on their 

 return from the interior, the varieties requisite on the line of 

 march. Any neglect in choosing beads, besides causing daily 

 inconvenience, might arrest an expedition on the very threshold 

 of success : towards the end of these long African journeys, 

 when the real work of exploration commences, want of outfit 

 tells fatally. The bead-monopolisers of Zanzibar supplied the 

 East African expedition with no less than nine men's loads of 

 the cheapest white and black beads, some of which were thrown 

 away, as no man would accept them at a gift. Finally, the 

 utmost economy must be exercised in beads : apparently ex- 

 haustless, a large store goes but a little way : the minor pur- 

 chases of a European would average 10 strings or necklaces 

 per diem, and thus a man's load rarely outlasts the fifth week. 



Beads, called by the Arabs kharaz, and by the Wasawahili 

 ushanga, are yearly imported into East Africa by the ton — in 

 quantities which excite the traveller's surprise that so little is 

 seen of them. For centuries there has been a regular supply 

 of these ornaments ; load after load has been absorbed ; but 

 although they are by no means the most perishable of sub- 

 stances, and though the people, like the Indians, carry their 

 wealth upon their persons, not a third of the population wears 

 any considerable quantity. There are about 400 current vari- 

 eties, of which each has its peculiar name, value, and place of 

 preference ; yet, being fabricated at a distance from the spot, 

 they lack the perpetual change necessary to render them 

 thoroughly attractive. In Urori and Ubena, antiquated marts, 

 now nearly neglected, there are varieties highly prized by the 

 people : these might be imitated with advantage. 



