396 Wanderings in Eastern Africa. 
was a special beauty belonging to it, and its extraor- 
dinary splendours fairly chained me to the spot on 
which I stood. It was such a scene as no pen or 
pencil could possibly convey an adequate perception 
of. The sun was fast setting, and a more lovely sun- 
set, its effect upon the surrounding scenery considered, 
was perhaps never beheld. Looking over a wondrous 
wealth of vendure, there towered before me the two 
sublime summits of this deep-forked Olympian on 
the one hand, the dark, though snow-spotted crag, with 
its towers, spires, and castellated heights, and on the 
other, the ample proportions of the grand, completely 
snow-covered, now sunlit and brilliantly shining dome. 
Beneath the snow the mountain steeps were bathed in 
the richest purple, till it blended with the dark green 
of the lower vegetation. Down the western shoulder 
of the mountain, to the level of the mountain range 
lying behind Machame and Shira, the same deep pur- 
ple prevailed, and beyond that ridge, at its extreme 
eastern point, rose in purple beauty the towering and 
pyramidal Meru, its head turbaned with fleecy clouds, 
fringed with amber and gold. Between Meru and 
the Machame range the glorious luminary of day 
descended amid hues of deepest crimson. It were well 
worth a journey to Chaga to behold such a sight. 
On the nth the mange was equally friendly, and 
we had a long talk together upon a variety of subjects. 
The Bible versus the Koran, hirizi (charms) and 
uganga (sorcery) versus God and His providence, 
were two of the subjects that engaged our attention. 
The mange was very talkative, and he concluded 
our conversation by imposing upon us a downright 
Bacchanalian lecture — a lecture in defence^of Pombe. 
