25th March, 1870.—­Iron bracelets are the common medium of exchange, and coarse beads and cowries:  for a copper bracelet three large fowls are given, and three and a half baskets of maize; one basket three feet high is a woman’s load, and they are very strong.

The Wachiogone are a scattered tribe among the Maarabo or Suaheli, but they retain their distinct identity as a people.

The Mamba fish has breasts with milk, and utters a cry; its flesh is very white, it is not the crocodile which goes by the same name, but is probably the Dugong or Peixe Mulher of the Portuguese(?).  Full-grown leeches come on the surface in this wet country.

Some of Katomba’s men returned with forty-three tusks.  An animal with short horns and of a reddish colour is in the north; it is not known to the Arabs(?).

Joseph, an Arab from Oman, says that the Simoom is worse in Sham (Yemen?) than in Oman:  it blows for three or four hours.  Butter eaten largely is the remedy against its ill effects, and this is also smeared on the body:  in Oman a wetted cloth is put over the head, body, and legs, while this wind blows.

1st May, 1870.—­An elephant was killed which had three tusks; all of good size.[7]

Rains continued; and mud and mire from the clayey soil of Manyuema were too awful to be attempted.

24th May, 1870.—­I sent to Bambarre for the cloth and beads I left there.  A party of Thani’s people came south and said that they had killed forty Manyuema, and lost four of theirown number; nine villages were burned, and all this about a single string of beads which a man tried to steal!

June, 1870.—­Mohamad bin Nassur and Akila’s men brought 116 tusks from the north, where the people are said to be all good and obliging:  Akila’s chief man had a large deep ulcer on the foot from the mud.  When we had the people here, Kassessa gave ten goats and one tusk to hire them to avenge a feud in which his elder brother was killed, and they went; the spoils secured were 31 captives, 60 goats, and about 40 Manyuema killed:  one slave of the attacking party was killed, and two badly wounded.  Thani’s man, Yahood, who was leader in the other case of 40 killed, boasted before me of the deed.  I said, “You were sent here not to murder, but to trade;” he replied, “We are sent to murder.”  Bin Nassur said, “The English are always killing people;” I replied, “Yes, but only slavers who do the deeds that were done yesterday.”

Various other tribes sent large presents to the Arabs to avert assaults, and tusks too were offered.

The rains had continued into June, and fifty-eight inches fell.