274 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



a truth, brethren ! the coast is far off, and ye are hungry 

 men ! " On the ensuing day, when a night's reflection 

 had cooled down their noble bile, they swallowed their 

 words like buttered parsnips. I heard no more of their 

 plans, and in their demeanour they became cringing as 

 before. 



The transit of the K'hok'ho clearing, which is also 

 called the Nyika, or wilderness, is considered the nucleus 

 of travellers' troubles in Ugogo. The difficulty is caused 

 by its Sultan, M'ana Miaha, popularly known as Maguru 

 Mafupi, or Short-shanks. This petty tyrant, the most 

 powerful, however, of the Wagogo chiefs, is a tooth- 

 ache to strangers, who complain that he cannot even 

 plunder a Vaimable. He was described to me as a short 

 elderly man, nearly bald, chocolate-coloured, and remark- 

 able for the duck-like conformation which gave origin to 

 his nickname. His dress was an Arab check round his 

 loins, and another thrown over his shoulders. He be- 

 comes man, idiot, and beast with clockwork-regularity 

 every day ; when not disguised in liquor he is surly 

 and unreasonable, and when made merry by his cups he 

 refuses to do business. He is in the habit of detaining 

 Wanyamwezi caravans to hoe his fields, and he often 

 applies them to a corvee of five or six days during the 

 spring-time, before he will consent to receive his black- 

 mail. 



We were delayed five days at K'hok'ho to lay in pro- 

 visions for four marches, and by the usual African pre- 

 texts, various and peculiar. On the afternoon of arrival 

 it would have been held indecent haste to trouble His 

 Highness. On the first morning His Highness's spouse 

 was unwell, and during the day he was a sitting upon 

 Pombe," in other words, drinking beer. On the second 

 he received, somewhat scurvily, a deputation headed by 



