The Taita Plains and Lake Jipe. 341 
paces, and dense jungles, gave us no end of trouble. 
On the western side of the Muarimba we had to cut 
our way through the forest, emerging from which, 
fagged to exhaustion, and pushing our way into a 
more open country, we encamped in the district of 
Mgnaroni, having accomplished scarcely one-third of 
an ordinary day's march. 
From the top of the Muarimba we obtained a 
complete view of the country east and west. On the 
one side stretched a wide plain, with nothing to break 
the monotony but the mount Kisigau and the hill 
Rima Gnombe; on the other extended a similar plain, 
bounded on the south-west by the Pare range, and 
due west by that of Ugono, Usange, and Kisungo, at 
the foot of which lay indistinctly discerned the lake 
Jipe. The night at Mgnaroni was not a pleasant one. 
The wind was gusty and the air was cold. I rose 
twice to warm myself at the fires. The sky was clear, 
and dew fell heavily. On the last occasion on which 
I rose, Venus and the moon had given place to Orion 
and the Pleiades, these latter having gained an alti- 
tude which told me that morning was near. The 
squeak, too, of the " chenene " assured me of the same 
thing. This is a large orthopterous insect of the grass- 
hopper tribe, perhaps the fly of Homer, 
" Which, perched among the boughs, sends forth at noon, 
Through all the grove, its slender ditty sweet." 
Our Wanika called it the '^Dsogolo ya Tsaka," and 
the Wasuahili the ''Ji^^be la Muitu,"that is, the ''cock 
of the woods," its '' slender ditty sweet" taking place 
throughout the night in the same regular succession 
as the crowing of the more lusty chanticleer, who 
