THE YEGEA MUD. 



83 



On the 18th July we resumed our march over a tract 

 which caused sinking of the heart in men who expected 

 a long journey under similar circumstances. Near 

 Kiruru the thick grass and the humid vegetation, drip- 

 ping till midday with dew, rendered the black earth 

 greasy and slippery. The road became worse as we 

 advanced over deep thick mire interlaced with tree-roots 

 through a dense jungle and forest, chiefly of the distorted 

 hyphasna-palm, in places varied by the Mparamusi and 

 the gigantic Msukulio, over barrens of low mimosa, and 

 dreary savannahs cut by steep nullahs. In three places 

 we crossed bogs from 100 yards to a mile in length, and 

 admitting a man up to the knee ; the porters plunged 

 through them like laden animals, and I was obliged to 

 be held upon the ass. This " Yegea Mud," caused by 

 want of water-shed after rain, is sometimes neck-deep ; it 

 never dries except when the moisture has been evapor- 

 ated by sun and wind during the middle of the Kaskazi 

 or N. E. monsoon. The only redeeming feature in the 

 view was a foreground of lovely hill, the highlands of 

 Dut'humi, plum-coloured in the distance and at times 

 gilt by a sudden outburst of sunshine. Towards the 

 end of the march, I forged ahead of the caravan, and 

 passing through numerous villages, surrounded by 

 holcus-fields, arrived at a settlement tenanted by Sayf 

 bin Salim, an Arab merchant, who afterwards proved to 

 be a notorious "mauvais sujet." A Harisifrom Birkah 

 in Oman, he was a tall thin-featured venerable-looking 

 man, whose old age had been hurried on by his constancy 

 to pombe-beer. A long residence in Unyarmvezi had 

 enabled him to incur the hostility of his fellow-merchants, 

 especially one Salim bin Said el Sawwafi, who, with 

 other Arabs, persuaded Mpagamo, an African chief, to 

 seize upon Sayf, and after tying him up in full view of 



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