198 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXVII. 
African life in the open, straggling village of Kalimari 
or Kalemri, divided into two distinct groups by a 
wide open space, where numerous herds of cattle were 
just being watered at the wells ; but how melancholy, 
how mournful, became the recollection of the busy 
animated scene which I then witnessed, when three 
years and a half later, as I travelled again through 
this district, the whole village, which now presented 
such a spectacle of happiness and well-being, had dis- 
appeared, and an insecure wilderness, greatly infested 
by robbers, had succeeded to the cheerful abode of 
man. 
But inviting as the village was for a halt during 
the heat of the day, we had, as conscientious and 
experienced travellers, the stomachs of our poor 
animals more at heart than our own ; and having wa- 
tered the horse and filled our skins, we continued on for 
a while, and then halted in very rich herbage, where, 
however, there was scarcely a spot free from the 
disagreeable " ngibbu," the Pennisetum distichum. On 
starting again in the afternoon, the country began to 
exhibit a greater variety of bush and tree ; and after 
a march of two hours, we reached the village Dar- 
magwa, surrounded with a thorny fence, and en- 
camped near it, not far from another little trading- 
party. We were soon joined by a troop of five Tebu 
merchants with two camels, a horse, and two pack- 
oxen, who were also going to Kiikawa, but who, 
unfortunately, did not suit me as constant companions, 
their practice being to start early in the morning 
