Ma-Rungu, plateau land.
U-Kutu, land of ears (long ears?).
U-Karanga, land of ground-nuts.
U-Lua, or U-Rua, land of lakes.
U-Emba, lake land.
U-Bwari, land of food.
Lakes also have names significative of native
ideas, such as the Tanganika, “ the great lake
spreading out like a plain,” or “ plain-like lake” ;
Niyanja Muta Nzige, or “ the lake of dead locusts,”
from, no doubt, the swarms of locusts
on the plains of Ankori, Unyoro, and Western
Uganda, and the salinas of Usongora, being
swept into it by strong winds; Niyanja, or
Nianja Ukerewe, “ the great lake around Uke-
rewe.”
Mtuyu is the easternmost settlement of the
country of Uzura. On arrival we perceived that
all their women were absent, and naturally enquired
what had become of them. They replied,
in pathetic strains, “ Oh, they are all dead; all
cut off, every one. It was the small-pox! ”
We sympathized with them, of course, because
of such a terrible loss, and attempted to express
our concern. But one of our enterprising people,
while endeavouring to search out a good market
for his cowries, discovered several dozen of the
women in a wooded ravine!
Skirting the range of hills which bounds the
Luama valley on the north, we marched to
Mpungu, which is fifteen miles west of Mtuyu.
Kitete, its chief, is remarkable for a plaited
beard twenty inches long, decorated at the tips
with a number of blue glass beads. His hair
was also trussed up on the crown of his head
in a shapely mass. His brother possessed a
beard six inches long; there were half a dozen
others with beards of three or four inches long.
Kitete’s symbol of royalty was a huge truncheon,
or Hercules club, blackened and hardened by
fire. His village was neat, and the architecture
of the huts peculiar.
The Luama valley at Uzura at this season
presents a waving extent of grass-grown downs,
and while crossing over the higher swells of
land, we enjoyed uninterrupted views of thirty
or forty miles to the west and south.
From Mpungu we travelled through an interesting
country (a distance of four miles), and
suddenly from the crest of a low ridge saw the
confluence of the Luama with the majestic Luala-
ba. The former appeared to have a breadth of
400 yards at the mouth; the latter was about
1400 yards wide, a broad river of a pale grey
colour, winding slowly from south and by east.
We hailed its appearance with shouts of joy,
and rested on the spot to enjoy the view.
Across the river, beyond a tawny, grassy stretch
towards the south-south-west, is Mount Kijima;
about 1000 feet above the valley, -to the south