Chap. XXIX. NYAMPUXGO THE RAIX-CHAEMER. 
605 
from the powerful rays of the sun, we were all completely tired 
out. He likewise gave us a bad character at every village we 
passed, calling to them that they were to allow him to lead us 
astray, as we were a bad set. Sekwebu knew every word he said, 
and, as he became intolerable, I dismissed him, giving him six feet 
of calico I had bought from native traders, and telling liim that 
his tongue was a nuisance. It is in general best, when a scolding 
is necessary, to give it in combination with a present, and then 
end it by good wishes. This fellow went off smiling, and my men 
remarked, His tongue is cured now.” The country around the 
Hake is hilly, and the valleys covered with tangled jungle. The 
people who live in this district have reclaimed their gardens from 
the forest, and the soil is extremely fertile. The Nake flows 
northerly, and then to the east. It is 50 or 60 yards wide, 
but during most of the year is dry, affording water only by 
digging in the sand. We found in its bed masses of volcanic 
rock, identical with those winch I subsequently recogiiised as 
such at Aden. 
13^A.—The head-man of these parts is named Nyampungo. I 
sent the last fragment of cloth we had, with a request that we 
should be furnished with a guide to the next chief. After a long 
conference with his council, the cloth was returned with a promise 
of compliance, and a request for some beads only. This man is 
supposed to possess the charm for rain, and other tribes send to 
him to beg it. This shows that what we inferred before was cor¬ 
rect, that less rain falls in tliis country than in Londa. Nyam¬ 
pungo behaved in quite a gentlemanly manner, presented me 
with some rice, and told my people to go amongst aU the villages 
and beg for themselves. An old man, father-in-law of the chief, 
told me that he had seen books before, but never knew what they 
meant. They pray to departed chiefs and relatives, but the idea 
of praying to God seemed new, and they heard it with reverence. 
As this was an intelligent old man, I asked him about the silver, 
but he was as ignorant of it as the rest, and said, “We never dug 
silver, but we have washed for gold in the sands of the rivers 
Mazoe and Luia, which unite in the Luenya.” I think that this 
is quite conclusive on the question of no silver having been dug by 
the natives of this district. Nyampungo is afflicted with a kind 
of disease called Sesenda, which I imagine to be a species of 
