TAITA TO KILIMANJARO. 
79 
About half-past 7 a.m, on the morrow we resumed 
our journey towards Kilima-njaro. I was going to 
establish myself at the Court of Mandara, chief of 
Mo si, a state on the southern flank of the mountain. 
Until my return from East Africa so little was known 
of the politics of Kilima-njaro, that it was popularly 
supposed there was but one paramount ruler of the 
district, and he, Mandara, chief of Mosi, who had sent 
letters to and exchanged presents with Sir John Kirk, 
and had seen, perhaps, each of the four or five Euro¬ 
peans who had approached Kilima-njaro. The way 
to his country lay first west, then north-west of 
Taveita, and the distance to be traversed was some 
twenty-seven miles. 
After leaving our camp we first had to cross the 
Kiver Lumi, over which a curious bridge was thrown. 
Some years ago the Wa-taveita were much inconve¬ 
nienced by repeated floods, which rendered their river 
(fed from the snows of Kilima-njaro) dangerous or 
impossible to ford, and consequently cut off one-half 
of the colony from communication with the other. 
The idea of bridging this five-yard-wide rivulet was 
too difficult for the native mind, so the elders of 
Taveita contracted with a Swahili trader to do the 
job. The price was to be a bullock. The trafficker 
in ivory and slaves was not long in his operations. 
Selecting one of the finest and straightest trees grow¬ 
ing on the summit of the river bank, he set to work 
with his followers, and with repeated chops severed its 
trunk near the base. The tree fell forward straight 
across the river from bank to bank, needing but the 
lopping of its superfluous crown of leafy branches to 
from as satisfactory a bridge as the natives required. 
As, however, its trunk remained rounded like a cylinder, 
