On the Tana. 219 
.they are, to finding themselves led astray by believing , 
false reports, yet every new thing must be true. 
They credit first accounts with the same avidity as 
ever. 
Not so, however, with us. We were sufficiently 
hard-hearted to smile at their grief. We had no doubt 
that there might be a smattering of truth in the account 
we had heard, but the probability was that it was 
vastly exaggerated. All native accounts are. East 
Africans cannot paint except in the very highest 
colours. No matter however sober the subject may 
be, they must dash on their thick vermilion. So we 
rallied our men, and told them to wait awhile. 
Saturday^ 12th. — On this day Hirebaya did not come, 
though he sent his little sororo of milk. This looked ex- 
ceedingly strange, as though indeed we were being 
trifled with still. After telling us so many times that 
the chief would come to-morrow, and after having seen 
us so often surprised and disappointed at his non-ap- 
pearance, he was probably beginning to feel ashamed 
of the part he was playing. Not that we suspected 
he was wilfully deceiving us, though it looked very 
much like it. A conviction nevertheless began to 
steal over us that a plot of some kind was being laid 
against us, for some mysterious ends, known only to 
the Gallas. Not being magicians, of course we could 
not divine the mystery. 
But if Hirebaya did not come, Buiya did. Was 
this part of the plot } We knew not. We questioned 
him closely, but could get nothing satisfactory from 
him. The chief could not come on account of the 
water. This was an excuse that did not content us. 
Other people could get through the water, why then 
