egg-beads. These were accepted with the usual good
¿ace of these people. The king then, ever attentive to
our position as guests, sent his royal musicians to give us
Musicians.
a tune. The men composing the band were a mixture of
Waganda and Wanyambo, who played on reed instruments
made telescope fashion, marking time by hand-
drums. At first they marched up and down, playing
tunes exactly like the regimental bands of the Turks, and
then commenced dancing a species of “ hornpipe, blowing
furiously all the while. When dismissed with some
beads, Nnanaji dropped in and invited me to accompany
him out shooting on the slopes of the hills overlooking the
lake. He had in attendance all the king’s sons, as well
as a large number of beaters, with three or four dogs.
Tripping down the greensward of the hills together, these
tall, athletic princes every now and then stopped to see
who could shoot furthest, and I must say I never witnessed
better feats in my life. With powerful six-feet-
long bows they pulled their arrows’ heads up to the wood,
and made wonderful shots in the distance. They then
placed me in position, and, arranging the field, drove the
covers like men well accustomed to sport—indeed, it
struck me they indulged too much in that pleasure, for
we saw nothing but two or three montana and some
diminutive antelopes, about the size of mouse deer, and so
exceedingly shy that not one was bagged.
Returning home to the tents as the evening sky was
illumined with the red glare of the sun, my attention was
attracted by observing in the distance some bold sky-
scraping cones situated in the country Rüanda, which at
once brought back to recollection the ill-defined story I
had heard from the Arabs of a wonderful hill always
covered with clouds, on which snow or hail was constantly
falling. This was a valuable discovery, for I
found these hills to be the great turn-point of the Central
African watershed. Without loss of time I set to work,
and, gathering all the travellers I could in the country,
protracted, from their descriptions, all the distant topographical
features set down in the map, as far north as 3°
of north latitude, as far east as 36°, and as far west as 26
of east longitude ; only afterwards slightly corrected, as
I was better able to connect and clear up some trifling
but doubtful points.
Indeed, I was not only surprised at the amount of information
about distant places I was enabled to get here
from these men, but also at the correctness of their
vast and varied knowledge, as I afterwards tested it by
observation and the statements of others. I rely so far on
the geographical information I thus received, that I would
advise no one to doubt the accuracy of these protractions
until he has been on the spot to test them by actual inspection.
About the size only of the minor lakes do I feel
doubtful, more especially the Little Lüta Nzigé, which on
the former journey I heard was a salt lake, because salt
was found on its shores and in one of its islands. Now,
without going into any lengthy details, and giving Rü-
manika due credit for everything—for had he not ordered
his men to give me every information that lay in their
power, they would not have done so—I will merely say