230 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
banana groves and plantations of the ficus, from the 
bark of which the national dress, or rnbugu , is made. 
The peculiar dome-like huts, each with an attempt at a 
portico, were buried deep in dense bowers of plantains 
which filled the air with the odour of their mellow rich 
fruit. 
The road wound upward to the summits of green 
hills which commanded exquisite prospects, and down 
again into the sheltered bosoms of woody nooks, and 
vales, and tree-embowered ravines. Streams of clear 
water murmured through these depressions as they 
flowed towards Murchison Bay. The verdure was of a 
brilliant green, freshened by the unfailing rains of the 
Equator ; the sky was of the bluest, and the heat, 
though great, was tempered by the hill breezes, and 
frequently by the dense foliage overhead. 
Within three hours’ march from Usavara, we saw the 
capital crowning the summit of a smooth rounded hill 
— a large cluster of tall conical grass huts, in the centre 
of which rose a spacious, lofty, barn-like structure. 
The large building, we were told, was the palace ! the 
hill, Kubaga ; the cluster of huts, the imperial capital ! 
From each side of the tall cane fence enclosing the 
grass huts on Rubaga hill radiated very broad avenues, 
imperial enough in width. Arriving at the base of the 
hill, and crossing by a “ corduroy ” road over a broad 
slimy ooze, we came up to one of these avenues, the 
ground of which was a reddish clay strongly mixed with 
the detritus of hematite. It gave a clear breadth of 
TOO feet of prepared ground, and led by a gradual 
ascent to the circular road which made the circuit of the 
hill outside the palace enclosure. Once on the dome- 
like height, we saw that we had arrived by the back 
avenue, for the best view of this capital of magnificent 
distances was that which was obtained by looking from 
the burzah of the palace, and carrying the eye over the 
broad front highway, on each side of which, as far as 
could be defined from the shadows of the burzah, the 
Wakungu had their respective courts and houses, em- 
bowered in gardens of banana and fig. Like the enclo- 
