en to the advice of the boys, which was his only fear.
Nothing as yet, I now found, had been done to further our march. The
hongo, the sheikh said, had to precede everything; yet that had not been
settled, because the chief deferred it the day of our arrival, on the
plea that it was the anniversary of Short-legs's death; and he also said
that till then all the Wagogo had been in mourning by ceasing to wear
all their brass bracelets and other ornaments, and they now wished to
solemnise the occasion by feasting and renewing their finery. This
being granted, the next day another pretext for delay was found, by the
Wahumba having made a raid on their cattle, which necessitated the chief
and all his men turning out to drive them away; and to-day nothing could
be attended to, as a party of fugitive Wanyamuezi had arrived and
put them all in a fright. These Wanyamuezi, it then transpired, were
soldiers of Manua Sera, the "Tippler," who was at war with the Arabs. He
had been defeated at Mguru, a district in Unyamuezi, by the Arabs, and
had sent these men to cut off the caravan route, as the best way of
retaliation that lay in his power.

At last the tax having been settled by the payment of one dubani, two
barsati, one sahari, six yards merikani, and three yards kiniki (not,
however, until I had our tents struck, and threatened to march away if
the chief would not take it), I proposed going on with the journey,
for our provisions were stored, but when the loads were being lifted,
I found ten more men were missing; and as nothing now could be done but
throw ten loads away, which seemed to great a sacrifice to be made in a
hurry, I simply changed ground to show we were ready to march, and sent
my men about, either to try to induce the fugitive Wanyamuezi to take
service with me or else to buy donkeys, as the chief said he had some to
sell.

We had already been here too long. A report was now spread that a lion
had killed one of the chief's cows; and the Wagogo, suspecting that our
being here was the cause of this ill luck, threatened to attack us. This
no sooner got noised over the camp than all my Wanyamuezi porters, who
had friends in Ugogo, left to live with them, and would not come back
again even when the "storm had blown over," because they did not like
the incessant rains that half deluged the camp. The chief, too, said he
would not sell us his donkeys, lest we should give them back to Mohinna,
from whom they were taken d