THE BULL-HEADED MABEUKI. 



171 



which bears an edible apple externally like the smallest 

 " crab," but containing a stone of inordinate pro- 

 portions : below the encamping ground the Pagazi found 

 a runnel of pure water, which derived its name from 

 the station. In former times Mfu'uni was a populous 

 settlement ; the kidnapping parties from the coast, and 

 especially the filibusters of Whinde, have restored it to 

 the fox and the cynhyama, its "old inhabitants." I 

 spent a sleepless night in watching each star as it sank 

 and set in its turn, piercing with a last twinkle the thin 

 silhouette of tall trees that fringed the hilly rim of the 

 horizon, and in admiring the hardness of the bull- 

 headed Mabruki, as he lay half-roasted by the fire and 

 half-frozen by the cold southern gale. 



Eations had been issued at K'hutu to all hands for 

 three days, the time in which they expected to make the 

 principal provisioning-place, "Muliaraa. " They had 

 consumed, as usual, their stores with the utmost possible 

 quickness ; it was our fifth day, and Muhama was still 

 a long march distant. On the 13th August, therefore, 

 in that hot haste which promises cold speed, we loaded 

 at dawn, and ascended the last step of the pass by an 

 easy path. The summit was thickly wooded; the hills 

 were crowned with trees; the ravines were a mass of 

 tangled verdure ; and from the Dub ( Cynodoii dactylon, a 

 nutritive and favourite food for cattle in India) and other 

 grasses arose a sickening odour of decay. A Scotch mist, 

 thick and raw, hung over the hill-tops, and about 10 p.m. 

 a fiery outburst of sunshine told severely upon hungry 

 and fever-stricken men. From the level table-summit of 

 the range the route descended rapidly at first, but pre- 

 sently stretching out into gentle slopes, totally unlike 

 the abrupt eastern or seaward face of the mountains : I 

 counted twelve distinct rises and fifteen falls, separated 



