old fellow, ignorant of everything but the art
of collecting ivory, who has contrived to attach
to himself a host of nameless half-castes of inordinate
pride, savage spirit, and immeasurable
greed.
The Arabs of Nyangwe, when they first heard
of the arrival of Tippu-Tib at Imbarri from the
south, were anxious to count him as their fellow-
settler; but Tippu-Tib had no ambition to become
the chief citizen of a place which could boast
of no better settlers than vain old Dugumbi, the
butcher Mtagamoyo, and silly Sheikh Abed;
he therefore proceeded to Mwana Mamba’s,
where he found better society with Mohammed
bin Say id, Sayid bin Sultan, Mse Ani, and Say id
bin Mohammed el Mezrui. Sayid bin Sultan, in
features, is a rough copy of Abdul Aziz, late
sultan of Turkey.
One of the principal institutions at Nyangwe
is the Kituka, or the market, with the first of
which I made acquaintance in 1871, in Ujiji and
Urundi. One day it is held in the open plaza
in front of Sheikh Abed’s house; on the next
day in Dugumbi’s section, half a mile from the
other; and on the third at the confluence of the
Kunda and the Lualaba; and so in turn.
In this market everything becomes vendible
and purchasable, from an ordinary earthenware
pot to a fine handsome girl from Samba, Marera,
or Ukusu. From one thousand to three thou-
[
sand natives of both sexes and of all ages gather
here from across the Lualaba and from the
Kunda banks, from the islands up the river and
from the villages of the Mitamba or forest. Nearly
all are clad in the fabrics of Manyema, fine grass
cloths, which are beautifully coloured and very
durable. The articles sold here for cowries,
beads, copper and iron wire, and lambas, or
squares of palm cloth,* represent the productions
of Manyema. I went round the market and made
out the following list:—
Sweet potatoes. Fowls.
Yams. Black pigs.
Maize. Goats.
Sesamum. Sheep.
Millet. Parrots.
Beans,
Cucumbers.
Melons.
Cassava. from the river.
Ground-nuts. Fresh fish.
Bananas. Dried fish.
Sugar-cane. Whitebait.
Pepper (in berries). Snails (dried).
Vegetables for broths. Salt.
Wild fruit. White ants.
Palm-butter.
Oil-palm nuts.
Pine-apples.
Honey.
Eggs.
Basket-work.
Cassava bread.
Cassava flour.
Copper bracelets.
Iron wire.
Palm-wine(Malofu). Iron knobs.
Pombe (beer). Hoes.
Mussels and oysters Spears.
Bows and arrows.
Hatchets.
Rattan-cane staves.
Stools.
Crockery.
Powdered camwood.
Grass cloths.
Grasshoppers. Grass mats.
Tobacco (driedleaf.) Fuel.
Pipes. Ivory.
Fishing-nets. Slaves.
* Made from the fibre o f the Raphia vinifera palm.