THE CHIEF MAG OMB A. 



265 



Sayf of Dut'humi, resting the muzzle of his musket 

 against a barrel of ammunition, fired it to try its strength, 

 and blew himself up with several of his comrades. 



On the 3rd October we quitted Kifukuru in the 

 afternoon, and having marched nearly six hours we 

 encamped in one of the strips of waterless brown 

 jungles which throughout Ugogo divide the cultivated 

 districts from one another, and occupy about half the 

 superficies of the land. The low grounds, inundated 

 during the rains, were deeply cracked, and my weak ass, 

 led by the purblind Shahdad, fell with violence upon my 

 knee, leaving a mixture of pain and numbness which 

 lasted for some months. On the next day we resumed 

 our journey betimes through a thick rugged jungle and 

 over a rolling grassy plain, which extended to the 

 frontier of Kanyenye, where Sultan Magomba rules. 

 The 5th October saw us in the centre of Kanyenye, 

 a clearing about ten miles in diameter. The surface is 

 a red tamped clayey soil, dotted with small villages, huge 

 calabashes, and stunted mimosas ; water is found in 

 wells or rather pits sunk from ten to twelve feet in the 

 lower lands, or in the sandy beds of the several Fiumaras. 

 Flocks and herds abound, and the country is as cultivated 

 and populous as the saline nitrous earth, and the scarce- 

 ness of the potable element, which often tarnishes silver 

 like sulphur-fumes, permits. 



At Kanyenye I was delayed four days to settle black- 

 mail with Magomba, the most powerful of the Wagogo 

 chiefs. He was on this, as on a ubsequent occasion, 

 engaged in settling a cause arising from Uchawi or 

 Black Magic; yet all agree that in Ugogo, where, to 

 quote the " Royal Martyr's " words, 



"Plunder and murder are the kingdom's laws/' 



there is perhaps less of wizardhood and witchcraft, 



