OUR FIRST VISITORS. 
45 
when no rain falls ; but at this time of the year there 
is generally plenty of water, though of indifferent 
quality, and there are several small marshes on either 
side of the route. The inhabitants of these, chiefly 
represented by frogs, toads, grasshoppers, and thou¬ 
sands of water insects, render night hideous with the 
deafening noise they make. 
A march of fourteen miles brought us to Magi-a- 
chumvi (salt water) near a moderate and brackish 
stream, and on arriving at the camping ground only 
a few natives came to look at us. They were naked, 
with the exception of a dirty piece of cloth round the 
loins, and loaded with brass chains round their necks, 
and coils of copper and iron wire encircling their arms 
from the wrist to half way up to the elbows ; they also 
wore rings of a white metal in their ears, and others, 
of brass, on their thumbs and fingers; the hair was 
shaved off round the base of the skull, leaving a tuft 
which they worked with grease and clay into tassels. 
All carried bows and quivers full of poisoned arrows, 
in addition to calabashes filled with water or with 
grain. These people, who are the only inhabitants 
of this territory, are called Wanyika (people of the 
wilderness) : they are very ugly, dirty, and of a low 
type : they were not at all obtrusive, but, sitting down 
in a row some distance from us, seemed much terrified 
when our donkeys appeared, as though they had never 
seen any animals of the sort before. 
In the afternoon I went out to shoot for the pot, as 
we were short of meat; I heard some partridges calling 
