GEOGRAPHY OF THE MARITIME REGION". 



105 



January ; it seems to the stranger as if the crops must 

 infallibly decay, but they do not. At most times the 

 sun, even at its greatest northern declination, shines 

 through a veil of mist with a sickly blaze and a blister- 

 ing heat, and the overcharge of electricity is evidenced 

 by frequent and violent thunder-storms. In the western 

 parts cold and cutting breezes descend from the rugged 

 crags of Dut'humi. 



The principal diseases of the valley are severe ulcer* 

 ations and fevers, generally of a tertian type. The 

 " Mkunguru " begins with coldness in the toes and 

 finger-tips ; a frigid shiver seems to creep up the legs, 

 followed by pains in the shoulders, severe frontal head- 

 ache, hot eyes, and a prostration and irritability of mind 

 and body. This preliminary lasts for one to three 

 hours, when nausea ushers in the hot stage : the head 

 burns, the action of the heart becomes violent, thirst 

 rages, and a painful weight presses upon the eyeballs: 

 it is often accompanied by a violent cough and irrita- 

 tion. Strange visions, as in delirium, appear to the 

 patient, and the excitement of the brain is proved by 

 unusual loquacity. When the fit passes off with copious 

 perspiration the head is often affected, the ears buzz, and 

 the limbs are weak. If the patient attempts to rise 

 suddenly, he feels a dizziness, produced apparently by a 

 gush of bile along the liver duct : want of appetite, 

 sleeplessness and despondency, and a low fever, evidenced 

 by hot pulses, throbbing temples, and feet painfully 

 swollen, with eruptions of various kinds, and ulcerated 

 mouth, usher in the cure. This fever yields easily to 

 mild remedies, but it is capable of lasting three weeks. 



A multitude of roads, whose point of departure is 

 the coast, form a triangle and converge at the " Maku- 

 taniro," or junction-place, in Central Uzaramo. The 



