352 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
Still another tradition relates that the Luwegeri 
Ho wed through the plain by Uguha, and into the great 
river of Rua, but that when the plain sank the Luwegeri 
flowed into the profound gulf caused by the sudden 
subsidence of what had once been a plain. 
The AVaguha have also their legend, which differs 
slightly from that of the Wajiji. They say that at a 
very remote period there was a small hill near Urungu, 
hollow within, and very deep and full of water. This 
hill one day burst, and the water spread over a great 
depression that was made, and became the lake we 
now see. 
I made many attempts to discover whether the 
Wajiji knew why the lake was called Tanganika. They 
all replied they did not know, unless it was because it 
was large, and canoes could make long voyages on it. 
They did not call small lakes Tanganika, but they call 
them Kitanga. The lake of Usukuma would be called 
Tanganika, but the little lakes in Uhlia (Musunya) 
would be called Kitanga. Nika is a word they could 
not explain the derivation of, but they suggested that 
it might perhaps come from Nika, an electric fish which 
was sometimes caught in the lake. 
A rational definition of Nika I could not obtain until 
one day, while translating into their language English 
words, I came to the word “ plain,” for which I obtained 
ni/ca as being the term in Kijiji. As Africans are 
accustomed to describe large bodies of water as being 
like plains, “ it spreads out like a plain,” I think that a 
satisfactory signification of the term has finally been 
obtained, in “the plain-like lake.” 
The people of Marungu call the lake Kimana, those 
of Urungu call it Iemba, the Wakawendi call it Msaga, 
or “ the tempestuous lake.” 
Westward from Ujiji the lake spreads to a distance of 
about thirty-five miles, where it is bounded by the 
lofty mountain range of Goma, and it is when looking 
north-west that one comprehends, as one follows that 
vague and indistinct mountain line, ever paling as it 
recedes, the full magnificence of this inland sea. The 
