164 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



when no one in camp, ourselves included, could procure 

 them. When all wanted clothes he clad his children 

 out of the outfit as if it had been his own, and, till 

 strong remonstrances were made, large necklaces of 

 beads decked their sooty necks. On the return-march 

 he preferred to pay hire for three porters rather than to 

 allow the fat lazy knaves to carry a bed or a few gourds. 

 They became of course insolent and unmanageable — - 

 more than once they gave trouble by pointing their mus- 

 kets at the Baloch and the porters, and they would draw 

 their knives and stab at a man who refused to give up his 

 firewood or his hearth-stones, without incurring a word of 

 blame from their master. Encouraged by impunity they 

 robbed us impudently ; curry-stuff was soon exhausted, 

 the salt-bottles showed great gaps, and cigar-ends were 

 occasionally seen upon the road-side. The Goanese ac- 

 cused the slaves, and the slaves the Goanese ; probably 

 both parties for once spoke the truth. 



Said bin Salim's silly favouritism naturally aroused 

 the haughty Kidogo's bile ; the sons of Ramji, con- 

 sequently, worked less than before. The two worthies, 

 Arab and African, never, however, quarrelled, no harsh 

 word passed between them; with smiles upon their faces, 

 and a bitter hate at heart, they confined themselves to all 

 manner of backbiting and talebearing. Said bin Salim 

 sternly declared to me that he would never rest satisfied 

 until Kidogo's sword was broken and his back was scari- 

 fied at the flagstaff of Zanzibar ; but I guessed that 

 this "wrathful mouse and most magnanimous dove" 

 would, long before his journey's end, have forgotten all 

 his vengeance. Kidogo asserted that the Muarabu or 

 Arab was a green-horn, and frequently suggested the 

 propriety of " planting " him. At last this continual harp- 

 ing upon the same chord became so offensive, that B'ana 



