Rice sown on 19th October was in ear in seventy days.  A leopard killed my goat, and a gun set for him went off at 10 P.M.—­the ball broke both hind legs and one fore leg, yet he had power to spring up and bite a man badly afterwards; he was a male, 2 feet 4 inches at withers, and 6 feet 8 inches from tip of nose to end of tail.

1st January, 1871.—­O Father! help me to finish this work to Thy honour.

Still detained at Bambarre, but a caravan of 500 muskets is reported from the coast:  it may bring me other men and goods.

Rain daily.  A woman was murdered without cause close by the camp; the murderer said she was a witch and speared her:  the body is exposed till the affair is settled, probably by a fine of goats.

The Manyuema are the most bloody, callous savages I know; one puts a scarlet feather from a parrot’s tail on the ground, and challenges those near to stick it in the hair:  he who does so must kill a man or woman!

Another custom is that none dare wear the skin of the musk cat, Ngawa, unless he has murdered somebody:  guns alone prevent them from killing us all, and for no reason either.

16th January, 1871.—­Ramadan ended last night, and it is probable my people and others from the coast will begin to travel after three days of feasting.  It has been so rainy I could have done little though I had had people.

22nd January, 1871.—­A party is reported to be on the way hither.  This is likely enough, but reports are so often false that doubts arise.  Mohamad says he will give men when the party of Hassani comes, or when Dugumbe arrives.

24th January, 1871.—­Mohamad mentioned this morning that Moene-mokaia, and Moeneghera his brother, brought about thirty slaves from Katanga to Ujiji, affected with swelled thyroid glands or “Goitre,” and that drinking the water of Tanganyika proved a perfect cure to all in a very few days.  Sometimes the swelling went down in two days after they began to use the water, in their ordinary way of cooking, washing, and drinking:  possibly some ingredient of the hot fountain that flows into it affects the cure, for the people on the Lofubu, in Nsama’s country, had the swelling.  The water in bays is decidedly brackish, while the body of Tanganyika is quite fresh.

The odour of putrid elephant’s meat in a house kills parrots:  the Manyuema keep it till quite rotten, but know its fatal effects on their favourite birds.

27th January, 1871.—­Safari or caravan reported to be near, and my men and goods at Ujiji.