five slaves to the war, with only ten rounds of
wrougfit-iron bullets each, to fight the powerful rebel
chief!
This long-continued war had driven the natives of
the country away from the Arab settlement; the
bazaar supplied almost nothing—only one tobacco-
shop and one or two depots for grain; the most common
iron-work could not be made. The villages
around had no inhabitants but the sick, aged, dying,
and starving, or idiots. We were told not to walk out
alone, as a man had been killed the previous month;
the country had been made dangerous, and the people
were getting exterminated. But when one of our
men cut through his hut and ran away one night,
having been suspected of theft, Moossah said with
confidence, “ The Wezees will not harm him, neither
will they give him shelter; he’ll be found;” and so
he was, rifle and bayonet untouched. AH the natives
were Hywans—that is, unable to count, write, or
tell their own. ages. Some practised medicine, giving
one of our men, who suffered from weakness in the
limbs after fever, a black ointment made of roots.
The black art of the Damars and the chipping of the
Oovamba’s teeth are practised here, as noticed in An-
dersson’s Travels. During the illness of the late chief,
witchcraft was suspected to be the cause. A fowl was
placed in the hands of the suspected, dissected by a
seer, and verdict given accordingly. Similar fancies,
differing only a little in detail, long prevailed in the
Highlands of Scotland, a very common form being to
bury a black fowl in the exact spot where a person
had been first seized with illness. Moossah had never
heard of fowls being thrown up in the air to discover
the sorcerer; and but one woman was killed to be
placed in the grave with the old king.
Our exploration of the northern kingdoms enabled
us to ascertain how far the mass of information
gleaned from our good friend Moossah was correct.
I can honestly say that, though he had never visited
Uganda,* his hearsay, on the whole, was a marvel
of accuracy:—“The Egyptian river flowed from the
Lake Nyanza. Copper and gold are found in Uganda.
["We discovered neither, however.] The king alone
wears clothes, killing all others who do so. He keeps
slaves, and has 3000 women. The people have 100
each, and the youngest fellow 10 to 20, whom they
steal or kidnap in war. The Karague people live entirely
on milk diet, yet they are men fit for war.
M’tezia, the king of Uganda, is a ‘boorra admi,’ bad
man; but being great friends with Rumanika (of
Karague), he will send you from 300 to 400 men to
escort you. Smallpox is rife in Uganda yearly. The
king has Zanzibar guns. At Uganda and Karague the
sultans do not, as in other countries, claim one tusk of
the killed elephant. Karague people carry about grog
in calabashes; one sort being an intoxicating, fiery
liquor, the other mild and good. Rhinoceros (white)
are numerous. The king of Uganda makes people
kneel in front of him, commanding them not to expose
their skin or feet before his 400 or 500 women. The
reed-grass huts of Karague and Uganda are so high
that strong fires may be burned in them. Musicians
of every sort there; king has five clocks sent him
* At Kazeh I understood th a t Moossah had never travelled farther
th an Karague; h u t I observe th a t Speke, in his Journal, states th a t
Moossah (or “ Musa,” as he writes the name) had reached Uganda.