through, keeping in mind that this dignitary was the
finest specimen we had seen, and was supposed to he
enlightened, though he did not know his own age,
could neither read, write, nor count beyond ten, and
had no names for any day of the week, for any month,
or for any year ! After we had been about a month
in his district, Sultan Ugalee—i.e., Stirabout—arrived
at Mineenga on the 21st of April, and was saluted by
file-firing from our volunteers, and shrill cries from the
women. He visited us in our verandah the day following.
He looks about twenty-two years of age; has
three children and thirty wives; is six feet high, stout,
with a stupid, heavy expression. His bare head is in
tassels, black hanks of fibre being mixed in with his
hair. His body is loosely wrapped round with a blue
and yellow cotton cloth; his loins are covered with a
dirty oily bit of calico, and his feet are large and naked.
A monster ivory ring is on his left wrist, while the
right one bears a copper ring of rope pattern; several
hundreds of wire rings are massed round his ankles. He
was asked' to be seated on one of our iron stools, but
looked at first frightened, and did not open his mouth.
An old man spoke for him, and a crowd of thirty followers
squatted behind him. Speke, to amuse him,
produced his six-barrelled revolver, but he merely
eyed it intently. The books of birds and animals, on
being shown to him upside down by Sirboko, the
head man of the village, drew from him a sickly
smile, and he was pleased to imply that he preferred
the animals to the birds. He received some
snuff in the palm of his hand, took a good pinch, and
gave the rest to his spokesman. He was led to look
at my musquito-curtained bed, and on moving away
was invited to dine with us. We sent him a message
at seven o’clock that the feast was prepared, but a reply
came that he was “ full,” and could not be tempted
even with a glass of rum. The following day he came
to wish us good-bye, and left without any exchange of
presents, being thus very different from the grasping
race of Ugogo.
The arms of the people consisted of spears, bows
and arrows, and leather shields shaped like the figure
8. Boys in the villages were fond of practising war,
by pelting each other with Indian-corn stumps, using
leather shields of defence.
We had daily visits from the women of the country,
who came in parties. They were copper-coloured and
flat-featured, and wore round their necks a profusion
of pendent bead necklaces of the colour of the moun-
tain-ash berry; their ankles were concealed with
masses of wire rings. For hours they sat silently before
us, smoking, nursing, and shampooing the limbs
and necks of their infants; some wore the heavy cloth
of the country, others had soiled robes of calico. Young
girls, many of them with pleasing faces and plump
round figures, wore merely a diminutive cloth about
their loins, and infants had a fringe of beads. These
women were rarely accompanied by men, but on Speke
having taken a woman’s likeness, the husband requested
him to write his (the husband’s) name on the
picture, so that the people of England might know
whose wife she was ! We saw some decidedly handsome
N’yambo girls on this route: their men attend
upon cattle exclusively, while they stay at
home doing household work, cooking, coquetting, and
showing off their beautiful feet and ankles. Two, in