138 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



of Ujiji," where he was chosen as an escort, he ignobly 

 deserted me. 



Khudabakhsh was formed by nature to be the best 

 man of the party ; he has transformed himself into the 

 worst. A man of broad and stalwart frame, with stern 

 countenance, and a quietness of demeanour which 

 usually argues sang-froid and persistency, his presence 

 is in all points soldier-like and prepossessing. But his 

 temper is unmanageable : he enters into a quarrel when 

 certain of discomfiture ; he is utterly reckless, — on one 

 occasion he amused himself by blowing a charge of 

 gunpowder into the calves of African warriors who 

 were dancing in front of him ; — and lastly, his innate 

 propensity for backbiting, intrigue, and opposition to 

 all authority, render him a dangerous member of the 

 Expedition. He herds with Belok, whose tastes lie in 

 the same line : he is the head and front of all mischief, 

 and presently his presence will become insupportable. 



Musa, a tall, gaunt, and dark-brown old man, is the 

 assistant Rish Safid, or greybeard ; in fact, the com- 

 plement of " Greybeard Mohammed." After a residence 

 of twenty years at Mombasah, he has clean forgotten 

 Persian; he speaks only a debased Mekrani dialect, and 

 the Kisawahili, which, as usual with his tribe, he prefers. 

 An old soldier, he compensates for want of youth and 

 vigour by artfulness ; an old traveller — nothing better 

 distinguishes in these lands the veteran of the road 

 from the griffin or greenhorn, than the careful and 

 systematic consideration of his comforts — he carries 

 the lightest matchlock, he starts in the cool of the 

 morning, he presses forward to secure the best quarters, 

 and throughout he thinks only of himself. His cha- 

 racter has a want of wrath, which, despite his white 

 hairs, causes him to be little regarded. Greybeard 



