AFKICAN EECEPTIONS. 



261 



distant, that, as the Arabs expressed themselves, " a man 

 might be seen three marches off." 



We were received with the drumming and the ring- 

 ing of bells attached to the ivories, with the yells and 

 frantic shouts of two caravans halted at Kifukuru : one 

 was that of Said Mohammed, who awaited our escort, 

 the other a return " Safari," composed of about 1,000 

 Wanyamwezi porters, headed by four slaves of Salim bin 

 Kashid, an Arab merchant settled at Unyanyembe. The 

 country people also flocked to stare at the phenomenon ; 

 they showed that excitement which some few years ago 

 might have been witnessed in more polished regions 

 when a " horrible murder " roused every soul from 

 Tweed banks to Land's End ; when, to gratify a morbid 

 destructiveness, artists sketched, literati described, tour- 

 ists visited, and curio-hunters met to bid for the 

 rope and the murderer's whiskers. Yet I judged favour- 

 ably of the Wagogo by their curiosity, which stood out in 

 strong relief against the apathy and the uncommunica- 

 tiveness of the races lately visited. Such inquisitive- 

 ness is amongst barbarians generally a proof of improva- 

 bility, — of power to progress. One man who had visited 

 Zanzibar could actually speak a few words of Hindostani, 

 and in Ugogo, and there only, I was questioned by the 

 chiefs concerning Uzungu " White-land," the mysterious 

 end of the world in which beads are found under ground, 

 and where the women weave such cottons. From the 

 day of our entering to that of our leaving the country, 

 every settlement turned out its swarm of gazers, men 

 and women, boys and girls, some of whom would follow 

 us for miles with explosions of Hi! — i! — i! screams of 

 laughter and cries of excitement, at a long high trot, — 

 most ungraceful of motion ! — and with a scantiness of 

 toilette which displayed truly unseemly spectacles. The 



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