THE BEACK1SH WATER. 



203 



country rarely rise to the height of three feet, whereas 

 in Somali-land they become dwarf towers, forming a 

 conspicuous feature in the view. 



No watch was kept by the Baloch at Marenga Mk'hali, 

 though we were then in the vicinity of the bandit Wa- 

 humba. On the next day we were harangued by Ki- 

 dogo, who proceeded to expound the principles that 

 must guide us through the unsafe regions ahead. The 

 caravan must no longer straggle on in its usual dis- 

 order, the van must stop short when separated from 

 the main *body, and the rear must advance at the 

 double when summoned by the sound of the Barghumi, 

 or the koodoo-horn, which acts as bugle in Eastern 

 Africa. I thought, at the time, that Kidogo might 

 as well address his admonitions to the wind, and I 

 thought rightly. 



The route lay through the lateral plain which sepa- 

 rates the Mukondokwa or second, from the Rubeho or 

 third parallel range of the Usagara Mountains. At 

 Marenga Mk'hali, situated as it is under the lee of the 

 two eastern walls, upon which the humid N. E. and 

 S.E. trade-winds impinge, the eye no longer falls, as 

 before, upon a sheet of monotonous green, and the nose 

 is not offended by the death-like exhalations of a pesti- 

 lent vegetation. The dew diminishes, the morning- 

 cloud is rare upon the hill-top, and the stratus is not 

 often seen in the valley; rain, moreover, seldom falls 

 heavily, except during its single appointed season. The 

 climate is said to be salubrious, and the medium eleva- 

 tion of the land, 2500 feet, raises it high above the 

 fatal fever-level, without attaining the altitudes where 

 dysentery and pleurisy afflict the inhabitants. Eor 

 many miles beyond Marenga Mk'hali water is rarely 

 found. Caravans, therefore, resort to what is technically 

 called a " Tirikeza," or afternoon march. In the Kisawa- 



