ying 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 rains 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
assage. 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.

Our mules here gave us the slip again, and walked all the way back to
Marenga Mkhali, where they were found and brought back by some Wagogo,
who took four yards of merikani in advance, with a promise of four more
on return, for the job--their chief being security for their fidelity.
This business de