This kind of procession is common at Zanzibar:
when any demoniacal possessions take place among
the blacks, it is by this means they cast out devils.
While on the subject of superstition, it may be worth
mentioning what long ago struck me as a singular
instance of the effect of supernatural impression on
the uncultivated mind. During boyhood my old
nurse used to tell me with great earnestness of a wonderful
abortion shown about in the fairs of England
—a child born with a pig’s head; and as solemnly
declared that this freak of nature was attributable to
the child’s mother having taken fright at a pig when
in the interesting stage. The case I met in this country
was still more far-fetched, for the abortion was
supposed to be producible by indirect influence on the
wife of the husband taking fright. On once shooting
a pregnant doe waterboc, I directed my native
huntsman, a married man, to dissect her womb and
expose the embryo; but he shrank from the work
with horror, fearing lest the sight of the kid, striking
his mind, should have an influence on his wife’s future
bearing, by metamorphosing her progeny to the likeness
of a fawn.
19th.—We bade Kurua adieu in the early morning,
as a caravan of his had just arrived from Karague,
and appointed to meet at the second station, as marching
with cattle would be slow work for him. Our
march lasted nine miles. The succeeding day we
passed Ukumbi, and arrived at Uyombo. On the way
I was obliged to abandon , one of the donkeys, as he
was completely used up. This made up our thirty-
second loss in asses since leaving Zanzibar. My load
of beads was now out, and I had to purchase rations
with cloth—a necessary measure, but not economical,
for the cloth does not go half as far as beads of the
same value. I have remarked throughout this trip,
that in all places where Arabs are not much in the
habit of trading, very few cloths find their way, and
in consequence the people take to wearing beads; and
beads and baubles are the only foreign things much
in requisition’.
As remarks upon the relative value of commodities
appear in various places in this diary, I shall
endeavour to give a general idea how it is that I have
found this plentiful country—quite beyond any other
I have seen in Africa in fertility and stock—so comparatively
dear to travel in. The Zanzibar route to
Ujiji is now so constantly travelled over by Arabs and
Wasuahili, that the people, seeing the caravans approach,
erect temporary markets, or come hawking things for
sale, and the prices are adapted to the abilities of the
purchasers; and at such markets our Sheikh bought
for us, and transacted all business. It is also to be
observed that where things are brought for sale, they
are invariably cheaper than in those places where one
has to seek and ask for them; for in the one instance
a livelihood is the consequence of trade, whereas in the
other a chance purchaser is treated as a windfall to be
made the most of. Now this line is just the opposite
to the Ujiji one, and therefore dear; but added to