THE RIVER KINGANI. 
25 
the merry song and laughter, the rattle of drums, 
jingling of bells, beating of old iron, and discordant 
talk going on round our tents. No Hindoo dare be 
so rude in your hearing, but an African only wonders 
that you don't enjoy the fun. 
We passed through three distinct countries — 
Uzaramo, Usagara, and Ugogo. Now at Kazeh we 
were in Unyamuezi — translated " Country of the 
Moon." Our interpreters had been Africans speaking 
Hindostanee, and seemed to learn the dialects as they 
went along, their native Kisuahili tongue being to 
them a useful basis. The four countries were not gov- 
erned by one king, but divided into provinces, each 
from 20 to 30 miles across ; and each had its despot 
ruler, the terror of travellers, who were forced to pay 
whatever tax was demanded without reference to any 
scale. The aristocrats or chiefs lived in no greater 
luxury than the poor, although they had a revenue 
from fines, taxes, a tusk of every elephant killed or 
found dead in their province, and the produce of 
large herds of cattle and of farming. 
On leaving the coast our path ran up a broad, flat, 
dry valley of grass and trees for twenty marches. At 
the ninth stage, from a ridge of rising ground com- 
posed of small pebbles in rotten sandstone, we saw 
distant hills to the north-west, and had a good view 
of the sluggish, winding Kingani, which we did not 
altogether lose sight of till the thirteenth march. We 
crossed the East African chain at an elevation of 4750 
feet, and got into Ugogo, a plateau without a river, 
and its " neeka" or deserted land requiring abundant 
rain to make it look at all green. These hills were 
tame in general outline ; the flora also was poor. We 
