384 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



true enough, as twenty-five disappeared in a single 

 night. He repeatedly affirmed that he had engaged 

 and paid them for the up-march only. When he stood 

 eonvicted of a double falsehood, he had not spoken 

 about the gunpowder, and he had issued whole hire to 

 several of the porters, I improved the occasion with a 

 mild reproach. The little creature became vicious as 

 a weasel, screamed like a hyaena, declared himself no 

 tallab or " asker," but an official under his govern- 

 ment, and poured forth a torrent of justification. I 

 cut the same short by leaving the room — a confirmed 

 slight in these lands — and left him to rough language 

 on the part of Snay bin Amir. Some hours subse- 

 quently he recovered his temper, and observed that 

 " even husband and wife must occasionally have a gird 

 at each other." Not caring, however, for a repetition 

 of such puerilities, I changed the tone of kindness in 

 which he had invariably been addressed, for one of 

 routine command, and this was preserved till the day 

 of our final parting on the coast. 



The good Snay bin Amir redoubled his attentions. 

 His slaves strung in proper lengths, upon the usual 

 palm-fibre, the beads sent up loose from Zanzibar ; and 

 he distributed the bales in due proportions for carriage. 

 Our lights being almost exhausted, he made for us 

 " dips," by ladling over wicks of unravelled " do- 

 mestics" the contents of a cauldron filled with equal 

 parts of hot wax and tallow. My servant, Valentine, 

 who, evincing uncommon aptitude for cooking, had as 

 yet acquired only that wretched art of burlesquing 

 coarse English dishes which renders the table in Western 

 India a standing mortification to man's palate, was 

 apprenticed to Mama Khamisi, a buxom housekeeper 

 in Snay's establishment. There, in addition to his 



