84 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



the plundering and burning of his store-house, to drive 

 him out of the country. Eetreating to Dut'humi, he 

 had again collected a small stock in trade, especially of 

 slaves, whom he chained and treated so severely that all 

 men predicted for him an evil end. " Msopora," as he 

 was waggishly nicknamed by the Wanyamwezi, instantly 

 began to backbite Said bin Salim, whom he pronounced 

 utterly unfit to manage our affairs ; I silenced him by 

 falling asleep upon a cartel placed under the cool eaves 

 of a hut. Presently staggered in my companion almost 

 too ill to speak ; over-fatigue had prostrated his strength. 

 By slow degrees, and hardly able to walk, appeared the 

 Arab, the Baloch, the slaves and the asses, each and 

 every having been bogged in turn. On this occasion 

 Wazira had acted guide, and used to " bog-trotting," 

 he had preferred the short cut to the cleaner road that 

 rounds the swamps. 



At Dut'humi we were detained nearly a week ; the 

 malaria had brought on attacks of marsh fever, which 

 in my case lasted about 20 days ; the paroxysms were 

 mild compared with the Indian or the Sindhian type, 

 yet, favoured by the atonic state of the constitution, they 

 thoroughly prostrated me. I had during the fever-fit, 

 and often for hours afterwards, a queer conviction of 

 divided identity, never ceasing to be two persons that 

 generally thwarted and opposed each other ; the sleepless 

 nights brought with them horrid visions, animals of 

 grisliest form, hag-like women and men with heads pro- 

 truding from their breasts. My companion suffered 

 even more severely, he had a fainting-fit which strongly 

 resembled a sun-stroke, and which seemed permanently 

 to affect his brain. Said bin Salim was the con- 

 valescent of the party ; the two Goanese yielded them- 

 selves wholly to maladies, brought on mainly by hard 



