FIKST DANGEROUS STATION. 



59 



saw piy flag rounding the hill-shoulder with a fresh 

 party, whose numbers were exaggerated by distance, 

 they gave way ; and finally when Muinyi Wazira opened 

 upon them the invincible artillery of his tongue, they 

 fell back and stood off the road to gaze. The linguist 

 returned to the rear in great glee, blowing his finger 

 tips, as if they had been attached to a matchlock, and 

 otherwise deriding the overboiling valour of the Beloch, 

 who, not suspecting his purport, indulged in the wildest 

 outbreak of boasting, offering at once to take the whole 

 country and to convert me into its sultan. Towards 

 the end of the march we crossed a shallow, salt, bitter 

 rivulet, flowing cold and clear towards the Kingani 

 River. On the grassy plain below noble game — zebra 

 and koodoo — began to appear; whilst guinea-fowl and 

 partridge, quail, green-pigeon, and the cuculine bird, 

 called in India the Malabar-pheasant, became numerous. 

 A track of rich red copalliferous soil, wholly without 

 stone, and supporting black mould, miry during the 

 rains, and caked and cracked by the potent suns of 

 the hot season, led us to Kiranga-Ranga, the first dan- 

 gerous station in Uzaramo. It is the name of a hilly 

 district, with many little villages embosomed in trees, 

 overlooking the low cultivated bottoms where caravans, 

 encamp in the vicinity of the wells. 



Before establishing themselves in the kraal at Kiranga- 

 Ranga, the two rival parties of Baloch, — the Prince's 

 permanent escort and the temporary guard sent by Ladha 

 Damha from Kaole — being in a chronic state of irri- 

 tability, naturally quarrelled. With the noise of choughs 

 gathering to roost they vented their bile, till thirteen men 

 belonging to a certain Jemadar Mohammed suddenly 

 started up, and without a word of explanation set out on 

 their way home. According to Said bin Salim, the tern- 



