ing, arriving at Marenga Mkliali (the saline water) to
breakfast. Here a good view of the Usagara hills is
View of E a s t C o as t Rang© from M aren g a Mkliali.
obtained. Carrying water with us, we next marched
half-way to the first settlement of Ugógo, and bivouacked
again, to eat the last of our store of Mbümi grain.
At length the greater famine lands had been spanned;
but we were not in lands of plenty—for ToE. Ugogo, 23d. . w „ . r " tne Wagogo we found, like their neighbours
Wasagara, eating the seed of the calabash, to save their
small stores of grain.
The East Coast Eange having been passed, no more hills
Halt, 2itA and bad to be crossed, for the land we next en-
tered on is a plateau of rolling ground, sloping
southward to the Rüaha river, which forms a great
drain running from west to east, carrying off all the rainwaters
that fall in its neighbourhood through the East
Coast Range to the sea. To the northward can be seen
some low hills, which are occupied by Wahümba, a subtribe
of the warlike Masai; and on the west is the large
forest-wildemess of Mgünda Mkhali. Ugogo, lying under
the lee side of the Usagara hills, is comparatively
sterile. Small outcrops of granite here and there poke
through the surface, which, like the rest of the rolling
land, being covered with bush, principally acacias, have a
pleasing appearance after the rams have set in, but are too
brown and desert-looking during the rest of the year.
Large prairies of grass also are exposed in many places,
and the villagers have laid much ground bare for agricultural
purposes. .
Altogether, Ugogo has a very wild aspect, well in keeping
with the natives who occupy it, who, more like the
Wazaramo than the Wasagara, carry arms, intended for
use rather than show. The men, indeed, are never seen
without their usual arms—the spear, the shield, and the
assagd They live in flat-topped, square, tembe villages,
wherever springs of water are found, keep cattle in plenty,
and farm enough generally to supply not only their own
wants, but those of the thousands who annually pass in
caravans. They are extremely fond of ornaments, the
most common of which is an ugly tube of the gourd
thrust through the lower lobe of the ear. Their colour is
a soft ruddy brown, with a slight infusion of black, not
unlike that of a rich plum. Impulsive by nature, and
exceedingly avaricious, they pester travellers beyond all
conception, by thronging the road, jeering, quizzing, and
pointing at them; and in camp, by intrusively forcing
their way into the midst of the kit, and even into the
stranger’s tent. Caravans, in consequence, never enter
their villages, but camp outside, generally under the big
“ gouty-limbed” trees—encircling their entire camp sometimes
with a ring-fence of thorns to prevent any sudden
attack.
To resume the thread of the journey: we found, on arrival
in Ugogo, very little more food than in Usagara, for
the Wagogo were mixing their small stores -of grain with
the monkey-bread seeds of the gouty-limbed^tree. Water
was so scarce in the wells at this season that we had to
buy it at the normal price of country beer; and, as may
be imagined where such distress in food was existing,
cows, goats, sheep, and fowls were also selling at high rates.