324 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



of the fine white rice grown in the country were the 

 normal prelude to a visit and to offers of service which 

 proved something more than a mere vox etprceterea nihil. 

 Whatever I alluded to, onions, plantains, limes, vege- 

 tables, tamarind-cakes, coffee from Karagwah, and 

 similar articles, only to be found amongst the Arabs, 

 were sent at once, and the very name of payment would 

 have been an insult. Snay bin Amir, determining to 

 surpass all others in generosity, sent two goats to us 

 and two bullocks to the Baloch and the sons of Ramji : 

 sixteen years before, he had begun life a confectioner 

 at Maskat, and now he had risen to be one of the 

 wealthiest ivory and slave-dealers in Eastern Africa. 

 As his health forbade him to travel he had become a 

 general agent at Kazeh, where he had built a village 

 containing his store-houses and his depots of cloth 

 and beads, slaves and ivory. I have to acknowledge 

 many an obligation to him. Having received a " wa- 

 kalat-namah," or " power of attorney " he enlisted 

 porters for the caravan to Ujiji. He warehoused my 

 goods, he disposed of my extra stores, and, finally, he 

 superintended my preparations for the down-march. 

 During two long halts at Kazeh he never failed, except 

 through sickness, to pass the evening with me, and from 

 his instructive and varied conversation was derived not 

 a little of the information contained in the following 

 pages. He had travelled three times between Unyam- 

 wezi and the coast, besides navigating the great Lake 

 Tanganyika and visiting the northern kingdoms of Ka- 

 ragwah and Uganda. He first entered the country about 

 fifteen years ago, when the line of traffic ended at 

 Usanga and Usenga, and he was as familiar with the 

 languages, the religion, the manners, and the ethnology 

 of the African, as with those of his natal Oman. He 



