Speke’s observation of the stars by dimming the
instruments. The days were often dark and hazy;
pelting showers beat down from the N.W., but we
sometimes had a fresh English morning, with a clear
sky, a N.E. wind, and temperature only 69° at 9 A.M.
We had no striking or beautiful sunsets like the equatorial
at sea, but in the evening the flowering grasses,
gorgeously lit up by the rays of the setting sun, had
a singularly fine effect; and such evenings were often
followed by a few dry days, and a temperature of 82°.
This hot weather occurred when, at the short twilight,
the sun appeared to set in the east, and the whole sky
was an arched illumination. On an average we had
rain two-fifths of the time we halted, and the greatest
fall noted in twenty-four hours was two inches. These
African rains we did not find followed by the disagreeable
steamy or muggy feeling experienced in
In d ia ; all was cool and fresh after them. We had
thunder and lightning, but rain did not always follow.
This province of Unyanyembe has nearly four
months of rain, commencing in the end of November,
and winding up with the greatest fall in February.
As soon as the soil of sand, or black spongy mould,
has softened, the seed is dropped, and by the 1st of
February all is as green as an emerald. The young
rice has to struggle for fifteen days against the depredations
of a small black caterpillar, green underneath.
I t is a precarious time for the agriculturist; for if rain
does not fall the crop is lost, being eaten close by this
insect. Women walk in the fields, with small hand-
picks, loosening the soil, clearing it of weeds and
worms. There is only one crop in the year, and all
the cereals known in Zanzibar are grown here. Cotton
was considered by an Indian resident to be as fine as
that grown in Kutch, but he said they had no use for
it, merely burning it as wicks. As the previous year’s
corn had been consumed, the poorer classes gathered
the heads of a wild grass (Dactyloctum ¿Egyptiacum),
and prepared it for stirabout by sun-drying, beating
on the rocks, and rubbing it into flour on their flagstones.
They also fed upon mushrooms, growing
amongst the rank “ dub” grass, after drying, roasting,
and peeling them. They were five inches in diameter,
and sienna-coloured. Another variety was white, and
half the size. All the cattle and goats in the country
seemed to have found their way into the folds of the
Arabs, and had been captured in a war still going on
between them and the native population. The surrounding
country is devoid of game, but within a long
day’s march a forest was visited, where various antelopes,
giraffes, lions, and a few elephants might be met
with along the valley of the Wallah river. The scales
of an armadillo were seen worn as a charm, three
inches across, and striated or lined at one end. Our
men had a superstition that the person who found a
live armadillo would become a king—meaning, I imagine,
that it was so rare. However, we came upon a
pet one at 3° N. latitude. About the cultivations near
the village no singing-birds are ever heard, but the
plumage of those seen is often very brilliant. Flocks
of beautiful little birds, with black bodies, golden-
tinted scarlet heads and backs, pecked at the ears of
corn; or in the rice-fields the favourite of the Cape
farmers, the “ locust bird,” black, and looking like a
curlew when walking, went tamely about. Crows,
with a ring of white round the neck, were seen in twos