why should we be so prone to criticise?  A remnant of our own superstitions is seen in the prejudice against sitting down thirteen to dinner, spilling the salt, and not throwing a little of it over the left shoulder.  Ferdinand I., the King of Naples, in passing through the streets, perpetually put one hand into his pockets to cross the thumb over the finger in order to avert the influence of the evil eye!

On the 6th, Muabo, the great chief of these parts, came to call on Mohamad:  several men got up and made some antics before him, then knelt down and did obeisance, then Muabo himself jumped about a little, and all applauded.  He is a good-natured-looking man, fond of a joke, and always ready with a good-humoured smile:  he was praised very highly, Mpweto was nothing to Muabo mokolu, the great Muabo; and he returned the praise by lauding Tipo Tipo and Mpamari, Mohamad’s native name, which means, “Give me wealth, or goods.”  Mohamad made a few of the ungainly antics like the natives, and all were highly pleased, and went off rejoicing.

Some Arabs believe that a serpent on one of the islands in the Nyanza Lake has the power of speaking, and is the same that beguiled Eve.  It is a crime at Ujiji to kill a serpent, even though it enters a house and kills a kid!  The native name, for the people of Ujiji is Wayeiye, the very same as the people on the Zouga, near Lake Ngami.  They are probably an offshoot from Ujiji.[61]

There are underground stone houses in Kabiure, in the range called Kakoma, which is near to our place of detention. 15th March, 1868.—­The roots of the Nyumbo or Noombo open in four or five months from the time of planting, those planted by me on the 6th February have now stalks fifteen inches long.  The root is reported to be a very wholesome food, never disagreeing with the stomach; and the raw root is an excellent remedy in obstinate vomiting and nausea; four or five tubers are often given by one root, in Marungu they attain a size of six inches in length by two in diameter.

16th March, 1868.—­We started for Mpweto’s village, which is situated on the Lualaba, and in our course crossed the Lokinda, which had a hundred yards of flood water on each side of it.  The river itself is forty yards wide, with a rude bridge over it, as it flows fast away into Moero.

Next day we ascended the Rua Mountains, and reached the village of Mpweto, situated in a valley between two ridges, about one mile from the right bank of the Lualaba, where it comes through the mountains.  It then flows about two miles along the base of a mountain lying east and west before it begins to make northing:  its course is reported to be very winding, this seems additional evidence that Tanganyika is not in a depression of only 1844 feet above the sea, otherwise the water of Lualaba would flow faster and make a straighter channel.  It is said to flow into the Lufira, and that into Tanganyika.