Geography and Ethfiology again, 457 
wear three or four bracelets of pewter, weighing a 
couple of pounds each, and their ankles are adorned 
with circlets of various metals, beads and chain. 
The homes of the Wachaga are not of a high 
order. They do not live in villages or towns, but 
each family has its own compound, completely sur- 
rounded with high, thick, quickset hedges, not easily 
broken through, and entered only by a small hole, 
strongly guarded with thick logs. The hut is a loose, 
round, rather flat-topped framework, thatched with 
plantain leaves, etc. ; the cattle often sharing it 
with their owners. Like the Wataita, they preserve 
their grain in large wicker-work baskets, covered 
with thatch, and looking when finished much like 
their huts. 
Their plantations, flocks and herds, supply them 
not only with abundance, but a great variety of food. 
Indian corn, wimbe, vikwa (a kind of potato), pulse, 
sugar-cane, plantains, milk, flesh, etc., etc., is not a 
mean supply for Africans. Their peculiarities are 
that they prefer their meat raw, and do not like salt ! 
They are fond of blood, great lovers of pombe, and 
they take snuff largely, but these habits are not 
peculiar to them alone. 
The government in Chaga is a royalty, absolute 
power being vested in the hands of the chief, the 
succession being hereditary, and following the male 
line. The chief is supported by the army, which is 
constituted of all the young men, who are compelled 
to serve as soldiers. His revenues consist of the 
proceeds of the toil of his own slaves, and of the 
compulsory services of the entire people — all his 
subjects being obhged to work for a certain number 
