A TRIP TO TAPE IT A. 
215 
to the sky in quite a simple way and said, “ Perhaps 
Muungii will cure him ? who knows ?—the other one 
died.” “ Then you had another child P ” I asked. 
“ Yes,” he said, “ but Muungu took it.” He looked 
again at his child, and seeing its eyes were flecked 
with mucus he cleaned them with great sucking kisses. 
At length I rose, and said in a roundabout way I had 
better be going. He put the child from him with a 
sigh, and rose and followed me to my camp, carrying 
a present of bananas. 
About this time numbers of Wa-taita from the dis¬ 
tricts of Bur a were flocking to the vicinity of Taveita 
in search of subsistence. A terrible famine raged 
throughout the countries bordering on the Zanzibar 
littoral in the year 1884. Many—far more than we 
can calculate—died of starvation, multitudes sold 
themselves and their children into willing slavery, not 
caring where they went or how they worked, provided 
only they were fed. This scarcity of food had not 
affected those happy regions lying within the bene¬ 
ficent influence of the great Snow Mountain. Here 
the gentle showers condensed around the lofty peaks 
never failed, and consequently the fruitful soil pro¬ 
duced its due supply of crops. Food could scarcely 
have been cheaper anywhere in the world than in 
V 
Caga, where a man might live comfortably on the ex¬ 
penditure of twopence-worth of cloth a day. But in 
Taveita, where only sufficient land was cultivated to 
supply the wants of the residents, provisions were 
already becoming relatively dear, owing to the unpre¬ 
cedented demand from the influx of coast people, who 
were afraid of penetrating the mysterious wilds of 
Gaga. The Wa-taita who had arrived in Taveita, 
seeking food, were consequently hard put to it at first 
