SALIM BIN SALIH. 



389 



though destitute of petticoat or crinoline they were 

 wholly unconscious of indecorum. It is a question that 

 by no means can be positively answered in the affirma- 

 tive, that real modesty is less in proportion to the ab- 

 sence of toilette. These " beautiful domestic animals " 

 graciously smiled when in my best Kinyamwezi I did 

 my devoir to the sex; and the present of a little 

 tobacco always secured for me a seat in the undress 

 circle. 



After hiring twenty porters — five lost no time in 

 deserting — and mustering the Baloch, of whom eleven 

 now were present, I left Yombo on the 18th December, 

 and passing through a thick green jungle, with low, 

 wooded, and stony hills rising on the left hand, to about 

 4000 feet above sea- level, I entered the little settle- 

 ment of Pano. The next day brought us to the 

 clearing of Mfuto, a broad, populous, and fertile rolling 

 plain, where the stately tamarind flourished to perfec- 

 tion. A third short march, through alternate patches 

 of thin wood and field, studded with granite blocks, led 

 to Irora, a village in Western Mfuto, belonging to Salim 

 bin Salih, an Arab from Mbuamaji, and a cousin of 

 Said bin Mohammed, my former travelling companion, 

 who had remained behind at Kazeh. This individual, 

 a fat, pulpy, and dingy- coloured mulatto, appeared 

 naked to the waist, and armed with bow and arrows : he 

 received me surlily, and when I objected to a wretched 

 cow-shed outside his palisade, he suddenly waxed 

 furious : he raved like a madman, shook his silly bow, and 

 declared that he ignored the name of the Sayyid Majid, 

 being himself as good a " Sultan " as any other. He 

 became pacified on perceiving that his wrath excited 

 nothing but the ridicule of the Baloch, found a better 

 lodging, sent a bowl of fresh milk wherein to drown 



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