104 
SUPERSTITIOUS FEARS. 
effect ! The drums were of wood, three to four feet high, 
and slung on a beam at a convenient height ; the sticks 
were twelve inches long. At these dances the head 
men were present to preserve order, and to prevent, as 
much as possible, the use of spears or arrows in their 
antics. On the arrival of a distinguished guest, such 
as the son of the sultan, who owned a neighbouring 
village, a roll from each of the four drums was given 
in succession, and as he entered the place every one hid 
in his house from shyness. If a lion or a culprit was 
brought in, the "assembly" was beaten furiously. 
Single taps at short intervals, and gradually increas- 
ing to a roll, were given in a case of murder, at 
five in the morning, and again an hour afterwards. 
The previous days had been, night and day, celebrated 
by incessant drumming on the part of a dark set of 
wandering beggars or gypsy lads, richly necklaced with 
beads, to commemorate some event which appeared, 
from the scant information I could obtain from my 
interpreter, to be celebrated once or twice in three 
years. This, if true, shows that they mark a period, 
announced by gypsies, whom I observed but twice 
during my stay at Ukuni. 
Of religion, idols, Sabbaths, or holidays they have 
none, but of superstitious fears and beliefs they have 
an ample store. On the occasion of the arrival of 
Speke with a detachment at a village, the natives shut 
their doors against him, and for three hours inhospit- 
ably kept the party in the sun. They had never 
before seen a white man, nor the tin boxes that the 
men were carrying ; " and who knows," they said, " but 
that these very boxes are the plundering Watuta 
transformed and come to kill us all ? You cannot be 
