392 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



' After a short and eventless march, on the 26th De- 

 cember, to Masenge, I reached on the following day the 

 little clearing of Kirira. I was unexpectedly welcomed 

 by two Arabs, Masud ibn Musallam el Wardi, and Hamid 

 bin Ibrahim el Amuri. The former, an old man of the 

 Beni Bu Ali clan, and personally familiar with Sir Lionel 

 Smith's exploits, led me into the settlement, which was 

 heaped round with a tall green growth of milkbush, and 

 placed me upon a cartel in the cool and spacious barzah 

 or vestibule of the Tembe. From my vantage-ground I 

 enjoyed the pleasant prospect of those many little mise- 

 ries which Orientals — perhaps not only Orientals — create 

 for themselves by " ceremony " and "politeness." Weary 

 and fagged by sun and dust, the Baloch were kept stand- 

 ing for nearly half an hour before the preliminaries to 

 sitting down could be arranged and the party could be 

 marshalled in proper order, — the most honourable man 

 on the left hand of the host, and the " lower class " off 

 the dais or raised step ; — and, when they commenced to 

 squat, they reposed upon their shins, and could not re- 

 move their arms or accoutrements till especially invited 

 to hang them up. Hungry and thirsty, they dared not 

 commit the solecism of asking for food or drink ; they 

 waited from 9 a.m. till noon, sometimes eyeing the door 

 with wistful looks, but generally affecting an extreme 

 indifference as to feeding. At length came the meal, a 

 mountain of rice, capped with little boulders of mutton. 

 It was allowed to cool long before precedence round the 

 tray was settled, and ere the grace, " Bismillah," — the 

 signal to " set to," — was reverentially asked by Said bin 

 Salim. Followed a preparation of curdled milk, for which 

 spoons being requisite, a wooden ladle did the necessary. 

 There was much bustling and not a little importance about 

 Hamid, the younger host, a bilious subject twenty -four or 



