C H A P T E R IV.
SOJOURN AT KAZEH, LAT. 5° S., LONG. 33° E.— PROVINCE OE
UNYANYEMBE— CROPS, CATTLE, ETC.— MOOSSAH, AN INDIAN
TRADER, HIS WIVES, ATTENDANTS, AND COWHERDS— THE
WATUSI — DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF WAR — MOOSSAH’S
ACCOUNT OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM.
We were delayed here for fifty-one days on account
of the falling rains, the flooded state of the river
ahead, and the impossibility of getting porters to
move at such a season, when grain was not procurable.
Our arrival was hailed with great delight.
Moossah, an excellent friend of Speke’s, several
Arabs and many followers, all in holiday attire, came
out a mile to welcome our ragged - looking Indian
file. Guns were fired, yambos and salaams with
shaking of hands followed, and we were lodged once
more under a hospitable roof.
The country is surrounded by low bare hills, which
every morning till eight or nine were obscured by an
unhealthy coloured mist, filling the wide valley where
we lay. There was nothing to cheer the eye—no
river, no trees: it reminded Speke of the Crimea. Rills
ran here and there through grass, and opened out on
white sand : one of these, collecting in a pool, formed
the drinking water of the inhabitants. Scarcely a
man amongst us escaped fever. We arrived on the
25th of January, and by the 1st February several
were laid up. My first attack lasted seven days, the
2d, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th terminating in headaches
every morning. After twelve days another sharper
attack, with delirium at night, but no ague, lasted
three days. The third and least severe came on fifteen
days afterwards, with drowsiness and profuse perspiration,
and terminated in three days. All suffered from
after-weakness in the limbs; some from blindness of
one eye, the eyelid much inflamed and drooping,
accompanied with excessive watering; or no inflammation
of the eye, but total blindness of it, and no
disease or scale observable. ‘ Acute pain rarely accompanied
this complaint. Our men ascribed their bad
health to not having got accustomed to the water of
the country. The natives had no efficient remedies
for preventing the recurrence of fever, but took
pinches of a pounded plant or wood to cure their
headaches, or cupped themselves in the following
curious manner : A man put some beeswax into his
mouth, applied a small cow’s horn to cuts made in the
temple of the patient, exhausted the air by suction, and
with his tongue shut the hole at the end of the horn
with the wax. We had only one fatal case. Quinine
and applications of blistering tissue behind the ear
and on the temples partially restored health and eyesight.
During our stay the prevalent winds were the
E., N.E., and S.E., but the coldest were the westerly
after rain. The mornings were foggy, the grass
dripped with the night-dew, which interfered with