474 Waiiderings in Eastern Africa. 
prized by the natives. The skin, three quarters of an 
inch thick, which when roasted looks like a piece 
of cocoa-nut, and eats something like it, is much 
relished. 
But it was not flesh-meat that my men regarded as 
food. They would devour a whole cow between them 
in two days, and then complain of hunger. They never 
thought they had a meal unless they had had sima 
(stiff porridge of Indian corn or maize). On the other 
hand there was a great demand among the Tavetas 
for flesh, and they would not part with their grain 
except in exchange for it. I was under the neces- 
sity, therefore, of purchasing a cow, slaughtering it, 
and setting up a butcher s shop. The cow cost me 
more than ,^15, yet all that we could make of it in 
sale was about worth of Indian corn. Yet the 
latter was of far more use to me than the cow would 
have been, and the above was the only method of 
procuring it. ^ , 
But this was ruinous ; and as my cash was spent, a 
longer stay in Taveta, had I wished it, would have ? 
been impracticable ; therefore, on the morning of the 
19th, we left its sylvan shades. 
The people gathered about us in large numbers 
when we left, and wished us a prosperous journey. 
M. Mbuana, while expressing a hope that he might 
meet with us again, told us for our encouragement, 
that the wilderness we had to travel was infested with 
lions, and, Allahu Akbar ! was on this account very 
dangerous. Now for Bura, Ndara, and — home. 
We had entered Taveta from the south ; now our 
way was toward the east. Clearing the forest in an 
hour, we stood upon the edge of the wilderness we had 
