Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 130.djvu/189

Rh thieves, it was light come light go, we got some goats and a couple of small bullocks cheap from these roving caterans. To obviate the inconvenience of being without water during our march across the Marenga Mkali, I filled four india-rubber air pillows with water, which held three gallons each, and besides giving us plenty for ourselves, allowed us some to spare for the weaker men and donkeys. The Marenga Mkali is a desert plain rather more than thirty miles across, reaching from the inland base of the Usagara Mountains to the eastern limits of Ugogo, and scattered about are numerous small irregular granite hills, many of a conical form.

There are many watercourses, which are flooded in the rainy season, and I am firmly of opinion that water might be obtained by digging.

On our march across it we saw many zebras and other wild animals, but were unfortunately unable to get within shot of any.

Our camp at night, under a grove of thorny acacias, was a scene for a poet instead of a sailor to describe.

No tents were pitched or huts built, but every knot of two or three men had its separate fire. Above, the velvety sky, with its golden lamps, then the canopy of smoke looking like frosted silver, next trees looking as if made of ebony and ivory, and, below, all the blazing fires with the wild figures of the pagazi and askari moving about amongst them.

After leaving our camp we marched across a broken sterile country with thorn-brakes and dry nullah, or sometimes a sandy plain, till we reached the outskirts of Ugogo.

Here we arrived at extensive plains, largely cultivated, but now, after the harvest, and in the midst of the dry season, parched and arid. The country, however, supports large herds of cattle, which seem to subsist on the dry stalks of the Caffre corn.

The natives made us pay before we were allowed to let our thirsty donkeys drink, or to cut the stalks of the corn to feed them on. The only growing crop was a small and tasteless watermelon, and as one or two of the men who picked one to quench their thirst were unfortunately detected, we had to pay a heavy fine. At this camp occurred a desertion en masse of a body of Wanyumwezi, hired by Murphy at Bagamoyo. He had entrusted their payment to Abdulah Dina, and that worthy had paid them in such vile cloth that when they saw what the men who I had paid personally had got, their anger rose, and shortly after sunset they levanted.

We marched from this station to the vicinity of the tembe of the chief of the district, when we were fully initiated into the delays and vexations incurred by every one who has any dealings with the Wagogo. The Wagogo are a bumptious, over-bearing race, but, contrary to the opinions of most travellers, I believe them to be like all bullies, arrant cowards; however, in Africa, a bullying, browbeating manner often passes for courage.

Their huts are miserable places, built round a square, in which at night the cattle are penned. Sheep, goats, and fowls share the huts of their masters; and smaller inhabitants are more in number than the sands of the sea.

The Wagogo, inhabiting a country which requires hard work to make it produce the necessaries of life, are slave-importers, and often tempt some foolish fellows to desert their Arab masters; only too soon do the fools find that they have exchanged from lenient masters to a bondage worse than that of the Egyptians.

The chiefs, as well as the meanest of the people, have to take their turn in tending the herds of cattle which form their principal wealth, the only privileges enjoyed by the chief being that he has, as a rule, more wives, obtains a larger share of the tribute, and can indulge in drunkenness oftener than his subjects. Their arms are bows and arrows, and spears, and the more eastern portion of them also carry hide shields painted in a pattern of red, white, and black. Their ears are pierced, and the lobes so enlarged that in many instances they hang down to their shoulders. In them they carry gourds, snuff-boxes, and all sorts of heterogeneous objects. Their hair is dressed in a most fantastic manner. In fact, nothing seems to be too hideous or absurd for the taste of a Mgogo. After a delay of two or three days, caused by the drunkenness of the people during the mourning for a sister of the chief, which rendered them incapable of transacting any business, we marched for the next station.

Our road lay along a fairly level country, sometimes cultivated, sometimes thorny scrub, and sometimes sterile sand, till in the evening we arrived at a lovely pond about four hundred yards by two hundred in length and width, embosomed in a grove of green trees, with short turf-like sward stretching back from its shores,—a