202 UNCERTAIN LIFE OF THE AFRICAN. 
wandering till sunset. They were like a parcel of 
hungry hounds, darting into every hut, spear up, and 
shouting at places where they thought they could 
safely plunder, eating and drinking on the way per- 
haps five or six times a-day. Mariboo, although in 
charge of me, would be absent for days drinking, 
allowing me to get on as I best could ; consequently, 
on several occasions, my conveyance, bedding, and 
writing materials were nowhere to be found. Some 
villagers, instead of presenting our party with wine, 
would in excuse make an offering of half-a-dozen 
cowries to me, and on having it explained to them 
that the white man did not exact presents, they 
would express great surprise. The Wezee doctor 
(Kiengo) of our party had Eumanika's orders to seize 
the officer of the Kisuere district for having com- 
mitted two misdemeanours. The man had been to 
present me with a gourd of wine, and did so very 
hurriedly, slipping away from my sight. Soon after, 
chase was given, a party following him up to his 
house, but the alarm had preceded him. The cattle 
that were to have been taken as forfeited to Eumanika, 
and the wives who were to have become the wives of 
Kiengo, were both driven to the jungles, but the 
plunder that fell to the lot of his pursuers was brought 
into our camp. The case was an illustration of the 
uncertain life of African men and women. The home 
they have lived in since the day of their birth, may in 
an instant, by the caprice of another, be wrested from 
them, or they may return to find it a ruin. My 
Waganda were careful not to plunder too much in 
their own country, for fear of the wrath of their king ; 
but when in Eumanika's territory, or on the borders 
