December, 1873Hisinéné being again reached I consulted Bombay and Asmani as to the best course to pursue in this unexpected difficulty.

To attempt to avoid Ugara would have lengthened the journey by three weeks or a month, while the country through which we should have been obliged to pass was reported to afford no supplies of provisions.

The ambassadors had assured me that the moment an arrangement had been arrived at the road would be opened, and they would conduct me to Taka's village, knowing that he would welcome me warmly. I therefore decided to send Asmani with them to Unyanyembé. to urge upon the Arabs the desirablity of settling the matter as quickly as possible.

The chief of Hisinéné was allied with the Arabs in the campaign against Mirambo, and a few days after our arrival the fighting men were mustered and despatched to the scene of action.

Hearing nothing from or of Asmani for ten days, I grew anxious and sent Mohammed Malom with half-a-dozen men and my two riding donkeys, to travel as fast as possible and ascertain what the news really was.

Now followed much dreary waiting and anxiety, which together with the unhealthiness of the place knocked me up, and I was attacked by fever and a sharp touch of dysentery. My back too was exceedingly painful that I had no rest night or day for more than a week.

Some good sport was to be had here, and when I rallied a little I frequently took my gun into a rice swamp about fifty yards outside the village and bagged some snipe. The men also constantly went shooting, bringing in one occasion a zebra and on another a couple of gazelle. The zebra is the best meat in Africa and is eaten by all the Arabs and their people, though not one of them would touch horse or donkey to save their lives.

Christmas Day passed very miserably. A heavy rainstorm commenced the day and flooded the whole village; the ditch and bank round my tent were washed away, and I had over six inches of water inside it. Everything was wet, damp, and muggy.

Then my dinner, for which I had kept a tin of soup and one of fish, besides one of the plum-puddings, was a failure. A village dog stole the fish, Sambo upset the soup, and the pudding was not boiled, and I had to content myself with a scraggy fowl and a bit of matama damper.

A very curious superstition on the part of the natives was noticeable here. One of my men came to me shouting that there was a large snake in a hut. I of course took my gun intending to shoot it; but when I arrived the natives would not allow the reptile - a boa about ten feet long - to be injured, but contended themselves with quietly turning it out of the village with long sticks. I asked the reason of this gentle treatment, and was told that it was a "pepo" - a spirit or ghost - and if injured some disaster would befall the village or its inhabitants.

During my long stay I had also many opportunities of observing the customs of the people.

Every morning as soon as it was light they came out of their huts and sat round fires smoking their matulinal 'baccy. This finished, all, excepting old women and young children, the chief and two or three elders, sallied forth to work in the plantations. Those whose fields were close to the village returned at noon to eat ugali or porridge, while others who worked further away cooked and ate their mid-day meal at the scene of their labours. Shortly before sunset they returned, and in the evening there was dancing, smoking, and singing, and drinking too when corn for making pombé is plentiful.

Drums are brought out and beaten vigorously by the hands, while men go circling round and round for hours at a time yelling and shouting.

The women never mingle with the men on these occasions, but sometimes engage in a dance by themselves, when the gestures and actions are often even more immoral and indecent than those of the men, though they are bad enough in all conscience.

Neither men nor women have any objection to be gazed on by the opposite sex whilst going through these anties, but as in most other tribes, they never dance together.

The huts in which they live are usually built of stout posts planted in the ground and the interstices filled with clay. The roof is flat with a slight slope to the front, and the rafters are covered either with sheets of bark or with bushes and grass, over which is spread a thick coating of earth.

Sweet potatoes cut in slices, pumpkins and gourds, are often laid on the roofs to dry for the winter provisions.

In the interior of these huts there are generally two and sometimes three divisions.

The first contains small bed-places covered with hides, and here also is the universal African fireplace consisting of the three cones of clay, which, in a few instances are hollow and form an oven. The only cooking ustensils are earthen pots, nearly everything being prepared for eating by boiling.

In the next division kids and lambs are kept, and the innermost one is used as a granary, where corn is stored in "lindo" or bark band-boxes with the lids carefully luted on with clay.

These lindo are often of enormous size, some being sufficiently large to contain a dozen sacks. Smaller lindo are frequently used as trunks for travelling.

Light is admitted only through the door, which also provides the sole means for the escape of smoke, and as a consequence the rafters and walls are black and shiny, and the cobwebs with which they are festooned are loaded with soot.

Amongst the rafters walking-sticks, bows, spears, knobsticks, and arrows, are stored, to become seasoned by the smoke.

As may be expected these dwellings are infested with vermin, the worst being enormous ticks, the bite of which is so annoying that the Arabs believe them to be venomous and often to cause fevers.

The main staple of food here - as indeed throughout Africa - is ugali, a sort of porridge. It is made by boiling water and then mixing in flour and stirring until the mixture becomes a stiff and heavy mass. It is then turned out and the superfluous moisture is allowed to drain away.

Meat is so rarely obtained that it is most voraciously devoured. When game is plentiful, however, they sometimes exercise a little forethought and smoke the flesh for keeping. This process consists of cutting it into strips and placing on branches over a fire of green wood.

The clothing of the Wanyamwési is usally of cloth obtained in trade, but the poorer people have to content themselves with native cloth made from the inner bark of a species of fig-tree.

The outer covering of this tree is stripped off in the rainy season and the trunk swathed with banana leaves until the inner bark becomes sufficiently soft and tender for manufacture. It is then removed and steeped in water, after which it is laid on a plank and tapped gently with mallets, usually made of rhinoceros horn grooved on the face. At each tap the piece of bark grows larger and larger, and when finished has something the appearance of a felted corduroy.

Kaffir corn on being first gathered is treshed on floors of trodden clay with long curved sticks - sometimes having a small piece of board like the blade of an oar at the striking end - and when separated from the rougher part of the chaff is stowed away in the lindo.

On being required for use it is beaten in a mortar to remove any chaff that may still remain and then ground into flour between two stones. The larger of these is fixed in the earth, and a woman kneeling down works the small one upon it. Altogether it is a rough operation resulting in a large proportion of the flour being composed of sand and grit.

Whilst employed in their labour women often have babies lashed on their backs, and their pendulous and flaccid breasts may frequently be seen swinging to and fro, with each motion of the body, amongst the slowly accumulating heap of flour.

The distinguishing tribal marks of the Wayamwési are a tatooed line down the center of the forehead and on each temple, the two upper front teeth chipped so as to show a chevron-shaped gap, and a small triangular piece of hippopotamus ivory or shell, ground down white and polished, hung round the neck.

Their ornaments consist principally of beads and brass and iron wire.

Chiefs and headmen wear enormous cylindrical bracelets of ivory extending from wrist to elbow, which are also used as signals in warfare. The noise occasioned by striking them together is heard at a long distance and is used by chiefs as a call for their men to rally round them.

The men usually shave the crown of the head and wear their hair twisted into innumerable small strings, lengthened artificially by plaiting long fibres of bark cloth with the hair. This is often carried to such an extent as to make it hang down to the small of the back, and when on the road this mixture of bark and hair is usally tied into a sort of club-tail.

Others, who only want to appear smart on occasions, have wigs of string and keep their wool shaved or clipped close.

The women follow no particular fashion in dressing their hair. Sometimes they allow it to remain in its native frizziness, often using it to stick a knife, pipe, or other small article into. Others have their hair dressed in innumerable small plaits, lying close to the head and having something the appearance of the ridges of a field; and occasionally they make it into large cushion-like masses, padded out with bark-fibres.

The two latter methods of hair-dressing occupy two or three days, but when the work of art is finished it remains undisturbed for six months or even longer.

Mrima Ngombé, being engaged in making a royal progress through his dominions, called on me here. He was dressed in a scarlet burnous trimmed with gold embroidery which looked rather odd over his greasy waist cloth, his only other garment. He was much displeased with the headman of Hisinéné, and reprimanded him for not having paid me sufficient attention or supplied me with pombé.

On the 28th of December Asmani arrived with the welcome news that a settlement of the misunderstanding had been accomplished, and that we could now pass through Ugara without let or hindrance. But since the embassy had remained behind on the spree, we were advised to make a détour to avoid their village, otherwise we might be suspected of having murdered them.

With Asmani came some of Said ibn Salim's men, bringing a few of my deserters and a hint to beware of Mirambo, as one of the Watosi - a tribe of herdsmen, of whom many are settled at Unyanyembé - had been detected conveying to him information of the route we proposed to follow.

They expressed the hope that I should be pleased on hearing that the unfortunate Mtosi had been shot for carrying the news to Mirambo. This act was doubtless intended as a piece of civility but it was one with which I could well have dispensed.

Nothing further had been done towards perfecting a plan for the campaign against Mirambo, owing to a difference of opinion as to the selection of a leader.

The officer who had brought the reinforcements from the coast wished to take chief command, civil and military; but this Said ibn Salim and Abdallah ibn Nassib refused to allow as they were both senior to him in the Sultan's service. The new troops stood by their own commanding officer, whilst the Balooches and others who had been serving under Said ibn Salim and Abdallah ibn Nassib refused to recognize the new comer.

And whilst divided councils prevailed at the Arab head-quarters, their native allies were daily leaving them and Mirambo was increasing in power and strength.

Asmani had neither seen nor heard of my servant Mohammed Malim, but believing I could trust him to follow me I made ready for starting at once.

The men refused to march, and Bombay, instead of assisting me, supported them by asserting that it was necessary to wait to enable them to clean their corn. This was nothing less than a gratuitous and idle excuse. On the 30th of December, after a deal of trouble, I marched through a pelting rain to another Kwikuruh, a large and populous place ruled over by the mother of Mrima Ngombé.

The old lady was remarkably civil, sending me eggs and pombé and declining to receive anything in return, saying she had been requested by her son to look after me as I was his friend, and that everything she possessed was at my disposal.

After starting the next morning Asmani tried a short cut he had heard of, and managed to miss it, and led us north-east, south-west, east, west, south, and north, in rapid succession.

A sore heel prevented my getting to the head of the caravan to put matters right; for my riding donkeys were away with Mohammed Malim and the old steed, Jenny Lind, which I had ridden from the coast, was ledt behind at Hisinéné on account of illness. To add to our miseries it was raining the greater part of the time, the mud in many placed being knee-deep.

Right glad was I when we sighted the clearing surrounding a village, and soon I was seated under a verandah of the chief's house.

All my clothing except that required for decency I at once hung up to dry; for a box containing a change of clothes was as usual behind. But a fire and a cup of hot coffee provided by Sambo soon pulled me together somewhat.

In the evening I tried for lunars and latitudes, but bad sight prevented my obtaining any.

Here I decided to wait for Mohammed to overtake us, which he did the following evening, bringing in Jasmin with a sore back caused by his villanous riding.

From some men who accompanied him from Said ibn Salim I learnt that Murphy was well away on his return journey, having been heard of past Jiwé la Singa.

During the day I had an opportunity of watching a man engaged in the peculiar procedd of making a sack for carrying corn.

Taking a pole about fourteen feet long, the outer thick bark which had been previously loosened by soaking in water for some days was removed by tapping it with a small mallet. He next put a strong seizing round the pole at about three feet from one end, and began at the other to turn the inner tough bark inside out, using for this purpose an instrument made of a bent branch cut to an edge at one end and forming a kind of adze.

The man then cut the pole short off above the lashing, and turning the bark back again increased its size by beating it out with a hammer very like that used in making native cloth, which also rendered it soft and more pliant.

He afterwards put corn into this bark sack, ramming it well in, and when it was perfectly full tied up the open end and wound wide strips of bark around the package.

It now resembled a hard bolster about six or seven feet long - the lateral expansion having shortened the bag - with a short pole projecting ay one end.

This serves to keep the contents from becoming wet when the baggage is stacked against a tree. Larger packages of this kind are used as granaries, being carefully thatched and then planted by the projecting pole in an open place in the village.

January, 1874On the 2nd of January, 1874, we broke up from Shikuruh (which, by the way, is the village called Kwikuruh by Stanley), after being detained by some men going out for the carcasse of a buffalo they had shot.

I here ascertained that a donkey which was supposed to have strayed at Unyanyembé had actually been sold by Umbari and one of Livingstone's men named Manua Sera whom I had sent for it. Upon this discovery I turned Umbari out of the caravan, as, in addition to being a rogue, he was a grumbling, troublesome fellow, who was constantly stirring up a spirit of dissatisfaction amongst the men.

Asmani seemed doubtful about the road for the next day's journey so I steered a course by compass, and, after five hours through trackless jungle full of game, camped by some pools in an open space.

I went out with my gun and saw numerous tracks of giraffe, and stalked one large antelope for a considerable distance; but before getting within range, Leo, who had been left in camp, found me, and testified his delight so noisily that the antelope was frightened and my chance of a shot was spoiled.

On returning I found a party of Said ibn Salim's men had arrived in search of three women slaves, reported to have accompanied the men sent by me to Unyanyembé with Mohammed Malim, and on their being discovered I ordered them to be immediately handed over.

During the night two more pagazi ran away, but a hunter whom we found in the woods fortunately volunteered his services.

Guided by compass we continued our march through jungle - where Leo startled a herd of antelope and the caravan found a sounder of pig, of which I bagged one little squeaker - and following this course for some hours came amongst a number of barked trees which denoted our approach to a village.

Shortly afterwards we struck a path leading through freshly cleared plantations, where the stumps of trees which had been falled were left about four feet high, having a most curious appearance. This brought us to the last village in Uganda, and although it was still early I decided to halt, as three long marched lay between us and the first village we should arrive at in Ugala.

Food was plentiful, and enough corn for four days being purchased I directed that it should be cleaned at once instead of allowing the men to take a whole day about the business.

The village was large and strongly built and additions had evidently been made at various times. The oldest portion, in which the headman lived, was almost entirely under the shade of one enormous banyan-tree.

In addition to the usual stockade this one was surrounded with a ditch and embankment loopholed for musketry on the inside, and the entrances consisted of narrow passages with two or three doors in each.

The different state of the country to that which prevailed when Burton was here was particularly noticeable. In this time a musket was an heirloom for a chief and the happy possessors were few and far between; but when I passed nearly every village could turn out at least half of its men armed with muskets.

In consequence of the disturbances between Mirambo and the Arabs, trade had suffered much and the whole country was very unsettled. The lawless inhabitants of villages took advantage of the disorder which existed, and formed parties, from forty to fifty strong, to loot and destroy their weaker neighbours. These they attacked indiscriminately, calling themselves friends of Mirambo or of the Arabs according to which party they were at the time intending on plundering.

As water was reported to be scarce and there were some danger of not finding any if steering by compass, we took the road pointed out by Asmani. Soon we were clear of jungle and entered an apparently illimitable plain covered with long grass and having numerous small mounds crowned with wood, as also solitary trees scattered over its surface. We halted near a pool of muddy water, and camped on on of the little wooded knolls.

Game was wonderfully plentiful. We saw quail and secretary-dirds, startled a large herd of antelope, and crossed a buffalo track - about twenty yards wide and trampled into the semblance of a ploughed field - running in a dead straight line from north to south.

Soon after starting from here for the South Ngombé nullah we passed some shallow swampy pools surrounded by trees and thick jungle.

I was in front and happened unfortunately to be without my gun, when a huge white rhinoceros waddled past me, grunting. He failed to notice me as I quietly slipped behind a tree, but the shouts of the porters who now sighted him warned him off and he turned into the jungle. I followed directly my rifle arrived and tracked him for some way, but was brought to a standstill by a bed of swamp.

The remainder of our road to the south Ngombé was swamp, followed by a piece of the most beautiful plain that it is possible to imagine.

Clumps of magnificent trees were grouped with an effect which could not have been arranged by the art of the landscape gardener; while wooded knolls and sketches of green grass, and a background of heavy timber along the banks of the nullah completed the scene.

The South Ngombé - not to be confounded with the Northern Ngombé which drains the country to the north of Taborah - is one of the southern affluents of the Malagarazi river, and is joined by the Walé nullah which rises a few miles west of Imtuvi. Near the point at which we crossed it lay in long reaches of four or five miles in length divided from each other only by sand bars about fifty yards wide.

Its waters afford a home to numerous hippopotami and crocodiles, and are covered with a profusion of immense waterlilies. In times of flood it spreads about three miles on either side and pours a vast quantity of water into the Malagarazi.

Our camp was pitched on its western bank, in a clear space of grassy turf surrounded by gigantic trees festooned to their topmost branches by enormous creepers.

The men being tired after out two long marches I decided on a day's halt and gave them leave to go out shooting. The surrounding country was full of gane, but I found it very wild and so frightened by the number of my own people as well as hunting parties of Wagara who were about, that I only shot a boar, which, being an unclean animal, none of my men would bring in.

During my ramble I noticed the remains of a lion, buffalo, and crocodile, lying together in a heap, and was told a curious story to account for this strange sight. It was said that when the buffalo came to drink a lion sprang upon him, and, both rolling into the water together, they were seized by a crocodile. He in his turn was dragged about twenty yards from he bank by the struggles of the two beasts, and there the trio perished in an inextricable entanglement.

I also saw an enormous crane of a bluish-grey colour, looking a king amongst birds, being by far the largest I had ever seen with the exception of the ostrich.