PRICES AT ZUNGOMERO. 



97 



milk, butter, and ghee are consequently unprocurable. A 

 sheep or a goat will not cost less than a shukkah, or four 

 cubits of domestics, here worth twenty-five cents. The 

 same will purchase only two fowls ; and eggs and fruit 

 — chiefly papaws and plantains, cocos and limes — are at 

 fancy prices. For the shukkah eight rations of un- 

 husked holcus, four measures of rice — which must here 

 be laid in by those travelling up-country — and five cakes 

 of tobacco, equal to about three pounds, are generally pro- 

 curable. Thus the daily expenditure of a large caravan 

 ranges from one dollar to one dollar fifty cents' worth 

 of cloth in the Zanzibar market* The value, however, 

 fluctuates greatly, and the people will shirk selling even 

 at any price. 



The same attractions which draw caravans to Zun- 

 gomero render it the great rendezvous of an army of 

 touters, who, whilst watching for the arrival of the 

 ivory traders, amuse themselves with plundering the 

 country. The plague has now spread like a flight of 

 locusts over the land. The Wak'hutu, a timid race, who, 

 unlike the Wazaramo, have no sultan to gather round, 

 are being gradually ousted from their ancient seats. In 

 a large village there will seldom be more than three or 

 four families, who occupy the most miserable hovels, all 

 the best having been seized by the touters or pulled 

 down for firewood. These men — slaves, escaped 

 criminals, and freemen of broken fortunes, flying from 

 misery, punishment, or death on the coast — are armed 

 with muskets and sabres, bows and spears, daggers and 

 knobsticks. They carry ammunition, and thus are too 

 strong for the country people. When rough language 

 and threats fail, the levelled barrel at once establishes 

 the right to a man's house and property, to his wife and 

 children. If money runs short, a village is fired by 



vol. i. h 



