182 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



who fear that a sudden fall of rain might compel them 

 to intempestive halts. In such places, throughout the 

 country, there are two distinct khambi, one on each 

 side of the obstacle, whether this be a river, a pass, or 

 a populous clearing ; in the latter case, caravans unload 

 at the farther end of the cultivation, prepared to escape 

 from a fray into the jungle, without running the gaunt- 

 let of the villages. That evening I tried to reduce the 

 ever-increasing baggage of the sons of Ramji, who 

 added to the heaps piled upon the wretched asses, now 

 burdened with rations for several days, their drums and 

 sleeping-hides, and their cocks and hens, whilst they left 

 the beds and the cooking-utensils of the Goanese upon 

 the ground. They informed me that if our animals 

 could not carry their property, they could not drive 

 our animals. The reply was significant. With some 

 exertion of the "rascally virtue" — Prudence — I 

 retired. 



The night was disturbed only by mosquitoes. These 

 piping pests, however, are less troublesome in this part of 

 East Africa than might be expected from the nature and 

 the position of the country, and the bite has little venom 

 compared with those of the Mozambique, or even of 

 Western India. The common culex is a large variety, of 

 brownish or dun colour ; its favourite breeding-places 

 are the backwaters on the banks of rivers, and the mar- 

 gins of muddy pools, and upon the creeks of the maritime 

 regions, and the Central Lakes. 



Pursuing our march on the next day, I witnessed a 

 curious contrast in this strange African nature, which 

 is ever in extremes, and where extremes ever meet, 

 where grace and beauty are seldom seen without a sud- 

 den change to a hideous grotesqueness. A splendid 

 view charmed me in the morning. Above lay a sky of 



