THE BEGGING SULTAN. 



317 



months, — to be vacated, and left us to look for a bullock. 

 At the village door I had remarked a rude attempt at 

 fashioning a block of wood into what was palpably in- 

 tended for a form human and feminine ; the Moslems of 

 course pronounced it to be an idol, but the people de- 

 clared that they paid no respect to it. They said the 

 same concerning the crosses and the serpent-like orna- 

 ments of white ashes — in this land lime is unknown — 

 with which the brown walls of their houses were deco- 

 rated. 



We made bonne chere at Rubuga, which is celebrated 

 for its milk and meat, ghee and honey. On the way- 

 side were numerous hives, the Mazinga or " cannons," 

 before described ; here however they were raised out of 

 the reach of the ants, white and black, upon a pair of 

 short forked supports, instead of being suspended from 

 the branches of a tall tree. My companion brought 

 from a neighbouring swamp a fine Egyptian, or ruddy 

 goose, and a brace of crane-like water-fowl : these the 

 Wanyamwezi porters, expecting beef, disdained, because 

 rejected by the Baloch, yet at Inenge they had picked 

 the carcase of a way-spent ass. Presently we were 

 presented by the Sultan with one of the fattest of his 

 fine bulls ; it was indeed 



" A grazier's without and a butcher's within ; " 



withal, so violent and unmanageable that no man could 

 approach, much less secure it : it rushed about the vil- 

 lage like a wild buffalo, scattering the people, who all 

 fled except the Sultan, till it was stopped dead in a 

 most determined charge, with a couple of rifle-bullets, 

 by my companion. In return, Maula received a crimson 

 cloth and two domestics, after which he begged for 

 everything, including percussion caps, for which he had 

 no gun. He appeared most anxious to detain the 



