FIEST SIGHT OF THE TEMBE. 



207 



levels, which were a network of sandy nullahs ; and 

 upon the rises, the regular and irregular square or 

 oblong habitations, called " Tembe," were seen for the first 

 time. Early September is, in this region, the depth of 

 winter. Under the burning, glaring sun, the grass 

 becomes white as the ground ; the fields, stubbles stiff as 

 harrows, are stained only by the shadow of passing 

 clouds ; the trees, except upon the nullah-banks, are 

 gaunt and bare, the animals are walking skeletons, and 

 nothing seems to flourish but Hies and white ants, 

 caltrops and grapple-plants. After crossing deep water- 

 cuts trending N.E. and N.N.E., we descended a sharp 

 incline and a rough ladder of boulders, and found a 

 dirty and confined kraal, on the side of a rocky khad # or 

 ravine, which drains off the surplus moisture of the 

 westerly crags and highlands, and which affords sweet 

 springs, that cover the soil as far as they extend with a 

 nutritious and succulent grass. As this was to be a 

 halting-place, a more than usually violent rush was 

 made by the Baloch, the sons of Ramp, and the 

 porters, to secure the best quarters. The Jemadar 

 remaining behind with three of the Wanyamwezi, who 

 were unable to walk, did not arrive till after noon, and 

 my companion, suffering from a paroxysm of bilious 

 fever, came in even later. Valentine was weaker than 

 usual, and G acta no groaned more frequently, " ang 

 duk'hta " — body pains ! To add other troubles, an ass 

 had been lost ? and u Khamsin,"— No. 50 — my riding- 

 animal, had by breaking a tooth in fighting incapacitated 

 itself for food or drink : its feebleness compelled me 

 to transfer the saddle to the last of the Zanzibar riding- 



* The Indian "khad" is the deep rocky drain in hilly countries, thus 

 differing from the popular idea of a " ravine," and from the nullah, which is 

 a formation in more level lands, 



