212 
THE KILIMA NJARO EXPEDITION 
and killed one in the act, and another was shot by the 
men. Night after night lions would roar and bellow, 
seemingly just a few yards from our enclosure. Yet, 
though I have heard of losses in live-stock, I never was 
told that any human being fell a victim to these car¬ 
nivora, though from the number of slaves tied together 
and allowed to sleep in the bush, outside the camps, 
I should think such a disaster not uncommon. 
Taveita is full of monkeys. They are to be seen in 
nearly every big tree, and chatter and mow at you 
from the branches. Great baboons are plentiful a 
little farther from the dwellings, on the borders of the 
forest. Many big varanus lizards, sometimes reaching' 
six feet in length, frequent the forest near the river. 
Food in Taveita is moderately plentiful and reason- 
V 
able in price, though not so very cheap as in Caga. 
Fish, both from the River Lumi and from Lake Jipe, 
is good and plentiful. Bananas are of fine quality, 
but dear. Corn and vegetables are also relatively 
expensive and scarce. 
One great treat for the visitor to Taveita during the 
months of June, July, and August are the ostrich 
eggs which are brought in from the outside country, 
where ostriches abound. In September and October 
these are over, and the natives bring you instead young 
ostriches which they have captured—bristly little crea¬ 
tures with scale-tipped plumes—and sell them for an 
ell of cloth each (about twopence in value). 
Finding Kiongwe did not arrive, after five or six 
days’ waiting, I returned once more to Mosi. Both my 
departure from Taveita and my arrival at Kitimbiriu 
were signalized by many kind acts on the part of my 
black friends. As we wound our way through the 
tortuous paths of the Taveitan forest, our acquaint- 
