for all of them were in the fields before sunrise gathering
the crop, or were doing varied works inside their
enclosures. The women on the 3d June were clipping
with a knife the tops of the sorghum, putting them
into baskets, and carrying the whole on their heads to
the village, where the grain, after being thoroughly
sun-dried, was thrashed out by lines of men with longhanded
rackets, as seen in the illustration, “ Unyamuezi
Harvest,” of Speke’s Journal. They sang and beat the
grain to a chorus, winnowed it in the S.E. breeze,
divided it into shares, and by the 1st of July all was
housed for the year; and porters, had they chosen,
•might have gone with us to Karague, but they preferred
tasting the new year’s grain. After the harvest, the
poorer people were allowed to glean the potato,
ground-nut, and grain fields, glad to have some refuse,
as, should the previous season have been a poor one,
they must have lived upon dried potato, or what wild
herbs they could pick up. Our Seedees, all of whom
except ten were away with Speke, could not afford to
purchase a cow or goat, and they felt the want of meat
considerably, but not to the extent that a European
does. My gun almost daily provided a guinea-fowl or
pigeon, and the Seedees lived upon stirabout or fish;
while, clubbing their daily rations, they could afford to
purchase a fowl, or by doing some office for the natives,
such as sewing, &c., they always secured friends. The
coin we at first used was rose-coloured beads, called
“ goolabee.” These were great favourites ; and when
exhausted, the price of everything rose to double—in
fact, the new coinage of sea-green beads, or “ magee
bahr,” was refused point-blank; they wouldn’t circulate.
Pure whites, “ Kanyera,” were tried; they also failed.
Indian reds, or “ Kudunduguru,” were utterly refused,
as only taken in uncivilised northern countries!
“ Kutu’mnazee,” cocoa-nut leaves, at last passed
muster, and milk was procured for our tea. It was
a regular strike in the market. All this rubbish of
beads was merely the equivalent to coppers. Silver
was represented by webs of unbleached calico, 30 to
32 yards long, 1 yard wide, and weighing 10 lb.,
stamped in blue, “ Massachusetts Sheeting.” The man
who got this stamped portion—“ Keerole,” or looking-
glass, as they called it—was thought a considerable
swell, and took care to show it across his loins.
Sovereign coinage consisted of coils of brass and
copper wire, thicker than that used for telegraphic
purposes, and converted into bracelets by the natives.
The blacksmith is never allowed to work inside the
village, perhaps because he has ample space outside,
and it is considered safer—not that his caste prohibits
it.
The nodules of ore are generally smelted in the forests,
and brought in a lump to the smith, who, ¡by means
of stone anvils and stones as sledge-hammers, converts
it into a long rod; and finally, by a hand-vice, and
grease from a small pot he carries, it is tied between
two posts and drawn till it becomes a thread. It is
now fit, after being once heated, for being twisted
neatly with the finger and thumb round a few hairs
from the tail of a cow, or the thicker hair of a giraffe.
In this state it is worn in rings ornamenting the ankles
of men and women, fifteen of them costing one string
of beads, value a halfpenny, and fifteen copper or brass
ones being double price. Iron hoes, adzes, grass-hooks,
small knives, pincers, &c., are all made up by the