CH. XII 
THE RAID 
of bomas, but the authority they exercise is feeble 
and confined to their immediate vicinity, while beyond 
their spheres of influence rapine and pillage and 
murder are rife. 
The hilly plateau that walls in the eastern shore 
of Lake Nyassa is in¬ 
habited by the Wyao tribe 
under several chiefs, of 
whom the most powerful 
and notorious are Mataka, 
Malinganiro (orKisombi), 
and Makanjira. These 
people are the descend¬ 
ants of the slave-raiders, 
hunters, rubber and wax 
collectors of old, from 
whom were mostly re¬ 
cruited the dreaded Ruka- 
ruka, the force employed 
by the Arab traders to 
conduct their caravans of 
slaves and ivory to the 
coast. A certain admix¬ 
ture of Arab blood has 
A TYPICAL * WYAO ’ HEADMAN. 
crept into their composi¬ 
tion, rendering them braver and more enterprising 
than their lowland neighbours, and they are, to¬ 
day, the prime source of most of the turbulence 
