30th October, 1867.—­Two ugly images were found in huts built for them:  they represent in a poor way the people of the country, and are used in rain-making and curing the sick ceremonies; this is the nearest approach to idol worship I have seen in the country.[58]

31st October, 1867.—­We marched over a long line of hills on our west, and in five and a half hours came to some villages where the people sold us food willingly, and behaved altogether in a friendly way.  We were met by a herd of buffaloes, but Syde seized my gun from the boy who carried it, and when the animals came close past me I was powerless, and not at all pleased with the want of good sense shown by my usually polite Arab friend.

Note.—­The Choma is said by Mohamad bin Saleh to go into Tanganyika (??).  It goes to Kalongosi.

1st November, 1867.—­We came along between ranges of hills considerably higher than those we have passed in Itawa or Nsama’s country, and thickly covered with trees, some in full foliage, and some putting forth fresh red leaves; the hills are about 700 or 800 feet above the valleys.  This is not a district of running rills:  we crossed three sluggish streamlets knee deep.  Buffaloes are very numerous.

The Ratel covers the buffalo droppings with earth in order to secure the scavenger beetles which bury themselves therein, thus he prevents them from rolling a portion away as usual.

We built our sheds on a hillside.  Our course was west and 6-1/4 hours.

2nd November, 1867.—­Still in the same direction, and in an open valley remarkable for the numbers of a small euphorbia, which we smashed at every step.  Crossed a small but strong rivulet, the Lipande, going south-west to Moero, then, an hour afterwards, crossed it again, now twenty yards wide and knee deep.  After descending from the tree-covered hill which divides Lipande from Luao, we crossed the latter to sleep on its western bank.  The hills are granite now, and a range on our left, from 700 to 1500 feet high, goes on all the way to Moero.

These valleys along which we travel are beautiful.  Green is the prevailing colour; but the clumps of trees assume a great variety of forms, and often remind one of English park scenery.  The long line of slaves and carriers, brought up by their Arab employers, adds life to the scene, they are in three bodies, and number 450 in all.  Each party has a guide with a flag, and when that is planted all that company stops till it is lifted, and a drum is beaten, and a kudu’s horn sounded.  One party is headed by about a dozen leaders, dressed with fantastic head-gear of feathers and beads, red cloth on the bodies, and skins cut into strips and twisted:  they take their places in line, the drum beats, the horn sounds harshly, and all fall in.  These sounds seem to awaken a sort of esprit de corps in those who have once been slaves.  My attendants now jumped up, and would scarcely allow me time to dress when they heard the-sounds of their childhood, and all day they were among the foremost.  One said to me “that his feet were rotten with marching,” and this though told that they were not called on to race along like slaves.