Eastern Chaga and the Lake Chala. 437 
escape for us that night, and we could not but encamp 
where we were. It was not a comfortable place ; 
the spot was on the steep side of a hill, and hardly 
afforded us sufficient room in which to lie at full length. 
On three sides we were shut in by the jungle, and 
on the other our way was barred by a steep-banked 
river. Had we been attacked in such a spot by 
night, not one of us could have escaped. 
At dawn (September ist) two old men made their 
appearance and offered to show us the way. They 
led us back a short distance, then took us down a 
steep hill-side to a place where the stream was pass- 
able. It would indeed have been difficult to have 
crossed it by night, for as it was it gave us no little 
trouble. On the other side we were in the district of 
Marango proper, but we were not allowed to proceed 
till the mange had been communicated with. When 
allowed to go forward, we made our way by a steadily 
rising path through plantations of plantains, etc., 
surrounded by thick quick-set hedges of thorns and 
brambles, the blackberries tempting our fingers 
everywhere. At nine a.m. we gained the top of a 
hill covered with a beautiful sward of short, thick 
grass and clover, and further adorned with many fine 
trees. On one side of us ran a wall of well-stacked 
stones, about eight feet high, and enclosing many 
acres of land. I was told it was raised by a former 
chief around his palace, another evidence among 
many of the superiority of the Wachaga, particularly 
of the former generations, to most East Africans. 
After waiting here about half an hour a party of 
about forty armed men came toward us, and it was 
intimated to me that the mange was among them. 
