62 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



dense jungle, here rising above, there bending into the 

 river valley, to some stagnant pools which supply the 

 district with water. The station, reached in 3 hrs 30', 

 was called Tumba Ihere, after the headman, who 

 accompanied us. Here we saw cocos emerging from a 

 fetid vegetation, and for the last time the Mwembe or 

 mango, a richly foliaged but stunted tree which never 

 attains the magnificent dimensions observed at Zanzibar. 

 Several down-caravans . were halted at Tumba Ihere; 

 the slaves brought from the interior were tied together 

 by their necks, and one obstinate deserter was so lashed 

 to a forked pole with the bifurcation under his chin, 

 that when once on the ground he could not rise without 

 assistance. These wretches scarcely appeared to like 

 the treatment ; they were not, however, in bad condition. 

 The Wanyamwezi porters bathed in the pools and looked 

 at us without fear or shame. Our daily squabble did 

 not fail to occur. Riza, a Baloch, drew his dagger on one 

 of Said bin Salim's " children," and the child pointed his 

 Tower-musket at the Baloch ; a furious hubbub arose ; 

 the master, with his face livid and drawn like a cholera 

 patient's, screamed shrilly as a woman, and the weapons 

 returned to their proper places bloodless as those 

 wielded by Bardolph, Nym, and ancient Pistol. My 

 companion began to suffer from the damp heat and the 

 reeking miasma ; he felt that a fever was corning 

 on, and the fatigue of marching under these circum- 

 stances prevented our mustering the party. The con- 

 sequence was, that an ass laden with rice disappeared, — 

 it had probably been led out of the road and unburdened 

 by the Baloch ; — whilst axes, cords, and tethers could 

 nowhere be found when wanted. 



On the next morning we left Tumba Ihere, and 

 tramped over a red land through alternate strips of rich 



